YJ: The Invasion Begins
by FireElemental159
Summary: Co-written with Eduardo Ramos and insomniacClarinetist. When Nat and Rachel are suddenly in Gotham, let's just say they were ecstatic. Teleported to Earth-16? It was a dream come true. But now they had to face the oh-so-real perils of this world, and also try and stop the Reach Invasion. Fun. The other bad news? They have no idea how to get home or if they are even able to.
1. Welcome to the Show

**A/N (FE159): I only own my character Nat and Eduardo only owns her character Rachel. Just so nobody's confuzzled about who's character is who's. If we did own YJ there would've already been a season 3 and Wally would've come back. **

Nat's POV

When I moved to New York from Rodeo last year, my close friend, Rachel Pate, and I decided to keep up our friendship over the internet. I know, it sounds cliché, and honestly, for a few months it was. Being a new girl in a huge city, it was chaos, me not making a lot of friends, the usual. So when summer finally came around, Rachel and I planned for her to come and stay for a week in New York. That's when it happened. How our lives went to hell.

_**NEW YORK CITY **_

_**JANUARY 4TH 2013 20:30 EST**_

Rachel and I hurried out of the clothing store, without a single thing considering everything was expensive. My mom normally would go with us, but my dad took her out for "date night", so I grabbed a credit card I hid under my mattress and Rachel and I went off to the closet shop. We had to get back before midnight, but at only eight thirty we were good enough on time to go back and watch a few episodes of Young Justice. A husky voice broke me out of my thoughts; a guy's voice drew my attention. Two of them, just a few years older than us were leaned up against the wall, staring. "Hey girls, you look lost."

This shook me. We were never the kind of girls to draw a guy's attention, considering we were both gigantic nerds. Rachel took a small side-step away from them, taking us closer to the road. I kept my head down, not looking anywhere close to the boys. As I thought we were in the clear, the voice came again. "Hey, we know this city pretty good, I'm sure we could help you find exactly what you're lookin' for, darlings."

Rachel's brown eyes met mine and whispered. "Nat."

I shook my head, unsure of what to do. We turned down the street that led to my apartment, their steps following behind.

"I have Mace."

I shook my head again, mouthing "No," in her direction. For the millionth time, I wished she would be quiet. Sometimes that girl didn't know when to shut up.

I stared ahead at my apartment, wishing the distance between the door and ourselves would decrease. No such luck. Still too far unless we run and I don't know about Rachel, but I don't run. Ever.

"Nat," Rachel whispered.

"What?" I said, to humor her, though I knew this wasn't the best time.

"There's only one now."

I risked a tiny glance over my shoulder, and see that yes, she is indeed correct. She throws me one of her infamous confused faces, one with eyebrows down and an exaggerated grimace that took up the majority of her face. I shrugged slightly, unsure of what to do.

Then I hear it. Footsteps, fast and multiple. It was a sprint, and I knew he was coming after us. When I looked back again, he was coming for us, along with several of his buddies. I saw one charge around a street corner, and Rachel screamed as two had cut around us, waiting for us as we ran. We stopped, and I realized we were surrounded. By now there were five of them and I wasn't confident we could stop them if they attacked us.

Rachel grabbed my wrist, charging between two of them and ran into one of the many parking garages around us. I stumbled along behind her, unable to see in the darkness,but determined to put distance between us and the teenagers. Rachel dragged me towards the staircase and pushed me ahead of her.

Exhausted by the third level, I spotted a clump of dark cars in one of the corners. We dived behind them, but I could still see enough that when they made their way passed us, I saw an opportunity to make a break, though a stealthy one. Very quietly, Rachel and I got up and slowly moved closer to the way down. Until I tripped over my own feet. They all turned to us and smiled. Advancing, their grins grew more like the Joker's than anything else.

_No,_ I thought, _I am not going to stand for it._ Standing, I moved in front of Rachel, and put my hands out to stop them. "Stay, AWAY!"

Suddenly, there was a flash of pure white light and we weren't in the parking garage, but instead in an alleyway, around in daylight, and no boys anywhere. What?

Rachel's POV

_**GOTHAM CITY**_

_**JANUARY 4TH 18:21 EST**_

The sunlight was in my eyes as Nat and I stood up. One second we were in a parking garage ready to try and fend off idiot teenaged guys and now? Who knows? We moved out of the alleyway and looked around. It was a city, in fact it looked a lot like New York, except there was no Empire State building or anything like that. The setup of the city itself was more spaced out, and the largest building had the words _Wayne Enterprises_ on it. Wayne... wait a second...

Nat must've thought the same thing because she grabbed my arm. "Rachel it's..."

At the same time we said, her overly excited, me just surprised, "Gotham City."

"And I'm Batman," I respond sarcastically, seizing the moment to make a joke. "But, wait, Natalia - you're serious?"

"Yep," she said, straightening up. "It's Gotham."

I stared at her blankly. "How do you know?"

"Rachel, you know me too well to think I wouldn't know what Gotham looked like."

I sighed. "So now what?"

She took a deep breath. "Let's go to Robinson Park. It may be getting dark, but that's the only place I can think of right now that isn't tied to Batman."

"I guess. Do you have any money to get a taxi?"

She twirled a credit card in between her fingers. "Money is no object."

I leaned against a wall while Nat hailed a cab. I missed the small-town feel of Rodeo. I wasn't good at hailing taxis or anything like she was. And I _hated_ pigeons, but Nat seemed to be obsessed with chasing them away just to see them bob their heads faster.

Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. The demon bird landed next to me and began pecking at my boots. I kicked at it, and it fluttered off, almost getting hit by the approaching taxi.

Nat let out a little laugh at the bird, and didn't seem to remember that she hated birds. And believe me, she's made it very clear in the past.

We scootched into the taxi, which was dark and smelly. My mother would throw a fit if she found out I had taken a cab - ever since a TV special had aired that proclaimed taxis were dirtier than toilet seats. Natalia slid the credit card to the driver, and proclaimed "Robinson Park, please."

The man swiped the card, and it flashed a "NOT VALID" sign. He handed the card back. "Nice try," he muttered.

Nat took the card back and slumped in her seat, glaring at the cabbie's head. I pulled a twenty out of my pocket and handed it to the guy. He took it silently, and we proceeded to the park.

Apparently, there wasn't any change left when we arrived. I figured that was bull, but, to be honest, I wasn't real excited to take up the issue with the cabbie. I followed Nat to a bench and sat down next to her.

She began to rattle off in the way she usually did, "So the question stands, if we're in Gotham, which universe? Regular, Dark Knight, New 52, JLU, Earth- Two, Young Justice, Teen Titans? Or is one of us just dreaming all this up?" She looked expectantly at me, waiting for an answer.

"I'm more worried about why your credit card didn't work. You said it _was _up to date, right?"

She looked down at the tiny reflective piece of plastic, outlining the numbers with her nail. "It _should_ have worked." Then she slapped her forehead. "Duh, if you listened to me, I gave you the answer. We're obviously in a different dimension, so everything in our world wouldn't work."

Mentally, I freaked, but I forced myself to stay calm. "Well, we work, don't we?"

"No, Rachel-"

"What about telephones?"

"Rach-"

"The sun works, doesn't it?! We're breathing, that works!"

"Rachel."

"_What_?"

"Objects MADE for us, with a purpose and role in our timeline, no longer function. Kapeesh?"

I stand up shakily. "I'm calling my mom."

She leapt up and hit my arm. "No, wait. What time..." She looked at my phone. "There it's January fourth - at least that's the same - of... damn two thousand sixteen. We're in the Young Justice world, because that date means it's the first episode of season two. You know what that means?"

I shook my head.

She narrowed her eyes. "Ugh, I thought you watched Young Justice, Rach."

"Excuse you, Ms. Netflix, I have to resort to Youtube on a broken computer."

"Never mind. That means, we can help. Go to New Orleans when it's time so we can help Tim, La'gann, and Jaime to stop the Kroloteans. But, there is the problem we only have three hours and a plane would take too long... but there has to be..." She stopped, her eyes wide. I turned down and saw the pebbles around us rising up with a green hue around them.

"Uh, Nat?"

She stared at them and they moved. I saw her eyes flash green as the pebbles dropped. "That was... that was me."

"Nat, I legitimately have no idea what happened, but let's find the airport-"

Bam.

I admit it wasn't the warmest day out, in fact it was lucky to be over 45 degrees, but suddenly a deep cold swept across the Park, sending the light layer of snow on the ground into a frenzy around us and the civilians now running for safety like it was an everyday event.

I turned to see, from that point of my life and forward on to now, the most frightening, delusional thing I have ever experienced. A man stood on the crest of a peaceful hill wearing what I could only describe as a Buzz Lightyear suit, entirely black and frosted with ice. His helmet/visor/whatever was frosted with ice, and the man inside - just a bald head, from all I could see - was pale blue, like a corpse. He held a gun - no, a bazooka - and pointed it at the civilians.

Natalia gasped. "Mr. Freeze," she breathed.

I watched him freeze a father, his body in mid-run as he was caught by the ice. The son and wife of the first victim were only three feet away when they were caught.

Then the gun was leveled at us.

I backed up slowly. I couldn't outrun the gun. I couldn't stop it.

I was going to die.

An evil grin spread across his face as he pressed the trigger. I prepared to dodge as the ice came towards me, but I knew I couldn't.

Nat's POV

I stared in horror at Rachel, soon to become a Popsicle. She moved to the left a touch, like she was prepared to give the ice an upper-cut.

"No!" I screamed as the ice hit her.

Wait.

A wall of fire so intense it seared my clothes roared around my friend, melting the ice in a puddle around her feet. I had no idea what was going on, but I could feel the heat roll across me. I know this wasn't a dream, but I wasn't sure if someone had sprayed Rachel with a flamethrower or what.

The flames and the ice died.

Rachel was still alive and still standing, an awful sneer spread across her face. I'd never seen her so mad. The only time I'd seen her mad at all, actually, was when my friend had poured chocolate milk in her lunchbox in fourth grade.

"My turn," she said, smirking. She curled up in what I assumed would have been a pitcher's stance, and fired.

Literally.

A fireball sailed across the field and blasted Mr. Freeze five feet backwards, plowing him into the earth. I don't know how I felt it, but I knew that his helmet cracked.

Rachel crumpled, her eyes unfocused. I tiptoed across the minefield of flaming rocks to get to her.

She was a mess. Her hair was smoking, and her jeans had been seared off, leaving a pair of badly burnt shorts in its place. Her boots were reduced to puddles of plastic. Her hoodie had lost its sleeves. Her aviator sunglasses, had somehow remained pristine, despite glowing red from the heat. She moaned and shivered slightly, the cold of January getting at her.

I held my hand a few inches from her shoulder, and I already felt the heat. I turned to Mr. Freeze, and wished he was tied down just in case. Then, the earth coiled around him with a green shine. So, telekinesis, but it wasn't until... oh, I'll figure it out later. Very quickly I wished and thought Rachel returning to normal. As though hearing me, the clothes restitched and fix themselves, everything cooling down to normal.

"Rach?" She groaned. I hit her arm. "Yo, Hothead, wake up!" She flew up, eyes alert once again. "We need to move." She nodded and I helped her up, bringing us to an untouched part of the park as the police came to the scene. Well, perfect timing.

"Nat, did I just..."

"Burst into flames? Yeah kinda. But still, freezing people in January, just a bit cliche even for a DC villain." I was suddenly struck by and idea. "I have telekinesis, you have pyrokinesis, we can fly to New Orleans with... I checked the digital watch on my wrist. "Yes. By my guess we can get there in two and a half hours, and be ready to help."

She shook her head. "But do you really want to go and help them?" That awarded her a punch to the arm. "Ok, you do, but here's a question. Can we rest for a second?" I leapt up.

"No way!" I was spinning and hopping in anticipation. "We have to..."

"Nat!" I looked and I was glowing. The telekinetic energy... kinetic. "My power must be based on the kinetic energy around me. If I can muster up enough, even think of the energy in us, I can do it. And you just need to keep cool. C'mon, aren't you even a little excited?"

She stretched her arms. "Yeah, sure. Just, lead the way."

_**NEW ORLEANS**_

_**JANUARY 4TH 21:57 CST**_

After getting prepared we flew off, me with a glow of bright green, Rachel's flames active, but very small so it wouldn't hurt me. Dodging stuff wasn't the easiest thing to do, but by my calculations, we reached New Orleans with ten minutes to spare. I felt where we needed to go, I don't know how I just did. When we got to the junkyard, we hid inside an old car, waiting.

"Nat, how should we..."

I glanced over at her. She had lit herself on fire, but a slightly cooled off version as to not melt through the seat or burn her clothes completely. "Just wait until they go in, then follow."

"And afterwards? We join the Team?"

I sighed. "No. We investigate just how different this world is from ours." I clenched the steering wheel. "We'll head to Rodeo, look for your mom." Then I felt a disturbance. "I believe it's go time, Hothead."

She nodded and we watched Robin, Lagoon Boy, and Blue Beetle exit a camouflaged Bio-ship, landing on other cars. Blue switched his left arm to a sonic gun or something, shooting the tool shed. From here we couldn't hear what they were saying, but I knew anyways. Below the waterline, that's where the Kroloteans were. I knew Rachel was thinking the same thing, because I heard her groan and extinguish herself. Go time indeed.

Rachel's POV

I hate water, I'm saying it there. I almost drowned in a kiddy pool when I was little, and I never went towards any again. So when Nat told me we both had to go, I almost burned her. Giving us air bubbles, Nat hopped in first, with me unwillingly following. No fire underwater, that's for sure. We floated through the seaweed and I waited behind as Nat opened the door. We got past it and even underwater, I heard the Kroloteans' screeching. The three were already there and already caught their attention.

Nat nodded to me. I felt a telekinetic pull and we were up on the ground again. The guys were fighting the Kroloteans. I looked to my friend. "Get the abductees, I'll try and stop the Kroloteans." She flew off and sped away.

Cool.

A Krolotean ran up to me, and I touched its forehead. "Boop," I said as the flame traveled from my finger to its flesh. It screeched in pain and wheeled towards the water, straight towards Blue Beetle and La'Gann. The latter looked at me, his (rather creepy, I must say) blood red eyes opening wide.

"What?!"

I smiled at him. "Hi." Blue pulled out his sonic thingy, they ran.

I was too busy watching the aliens sprint towards the tubes to see the Atlantean rushing towards. He pinned my throat to the ground, so tightly I could barely breathe.

"What _are_ you?!" he growled.

"Ease up, _hermano_, you're choking her."

He grudgingly pulled his hands away, and I took a deep breath. Air. Good. "What are you?" he asked again, the ferocity still in his voice.

"My name's - ah - Phoenix," I said, recalling the name of a fire sorceress from my favorite book/movie series, Dreamland.

He frowned. "That's a new one. I'm Blue Beetle."

"Lagoon Boy," spat out La'Gann, still mad at me for appearing.

Blue jerked his head up, staring at a panel above our heads. Symbols flashed in a repeating fashion, almost reminding me of-

"It's counting down to 0 from 4 minutes. When it ends, this place explodes."

"Like, just the Zeta tubes, or the entire-"

"How do you know what Zeta tubes are?" asked Lagoon Boy, glaring at me.

"Uh..."

"Guys. Four minutes. Let's go."

Nat's POV

I flew up to the shaft and zoomed down, on the way putting my goggles over my face, kind of like a mask. Soon I found the captives. They were obviously scared out of their wits, but not so much to ask questions. Course. One asked, "What are you?"

Not really thinking it through I said, "Kinetica -uh, can you back up?" I using my power, ripped the bars off, allowing them freedom. "Uh, stay here a second." Guessing, I sped up my running, until it was on par with Flash. Yes. In a matter of moments I skidded to a stop in front of the guys, Lagoon Boy apparently unimpressed by Rachel, or by me for that matter.

"There's another one?"

I shrugged. "Well, duh, since when do superheroes work solo?" I looked at Rachel, who kept glancing at Blue. "Got the Kroloteans, splendiferous. Just..." I hit myself on the head. "Prisoners, I'll be right back." I sped off to the abductees, and brought them to the group. "Now that that's done, where's the exit?" I looked at Blue.

"What? Wait, you can... yeah." He spoke in the Krolotean language, then answered. "That way."

"Sweet." We ran and I checked my watch. "Uh, less than two minutes before we're a mushroom cloud." When we reached the exit to the water I turned back to everyone. "Everyone get ready. And," I put air bubbles around everyone except Lagoon Boy and Blue, "just so we don't drown in the process, don't pop these."

Tim looked from one of us to the other. "When we get out of here you're going to have some questions to answer."

I laughed nervously. "Yeah sure... probably."

Rachel's POV

Needless to say, I wasn't entirely thrilled with our opening act. Or the water. Mainly the water.

When we reached the water again, the self-destruct activated. The force of the explosion propelled me into Lagoon Boy, who snarled but kept swimming. At last, I reached the surface, taking a deep breath. Under there I hit the weeds, popping the air bubble Nat gave me. Fire powers and no oxygen... not cool man. Nat came up next to me with Tim on my left, the destruction of the Krolotean base acting as a backdrop. He looked at us. "You want to explain?"

Nat answered with a secretive smile. "I'm - uh - Kinetica and she's Phoenix. And we have to fly!" She used her powers to tug me out of the water and we flew up. "Sorry for the dramatic exit, boys, but we have our own agenda to uphold." We sped off into the night, Nat guiding us west. Speaking of which...

"Kinetica?"

"You chose your account name, I chose mine."

"Fair enough," I shrug, smirking. "Better than most names honestly."


	2. Coming Home

**A/N (FE159): Hey guys, important note. We will try to update every Saturday or every other Saturday when school starts again. Anyways we own nothing except for our OC's Rachel and Nat, the rest belong to Warner Bros (-_-)**

Rachel's POV

TEXAS

JANUARY 4TH 23:05 CST

Thinking back, it might not have been the best idea to let Nat try and carry both of us all the way to Rodeo. As we were passing over the emptiness of west Texas, I noticed we weren't really flying forward anymore, but more or less downward. Nat was spinning, nearly unconscious.

"Nat?" I said. The wind ripped the words out of my mouth.

"Nat?!" I screamed, shaking her shoulders.

She jolted up, nearly throwing me. Imagine riding a vertical horse. That's how hard it was to stay on.

"What?" she muttered sleepily, not noticing we were flying almost 700 feet above the ground and closing the distance fast.

"How about we land now?"

"Land...?" she said, looking down for the first time. Her eyes went wide. "Holy Mother!" she screamed, flailing around in the air, trying to grab my wrist. When she got a hold, nothing happened. "I... I got nothing! I can't... I can't get anything!"

Well that wasn't good. No telekinesis to keep us up and the ground growing closer every second. "Nat, the air, get it from there!"

"The what?"

"The air!" I screamed.

She closed her eyes, and all that happened was a small glow. I screamed as I realized we were going to hit the dirt.

And we did.

Kind of.

My back hit the earth, and I saw Nat next to me. She was unconscious, and she was going to be out for who know how long if I didn't try anything. "Nat." I shook her, giving her the kinetic energy. After a minute of this, her eyes fluttered. She was alive, even if she had a small nose bleed. I stood, so full of adrenaline, flames erupted around me. I quickly patted them out.

I looked around me. There wasn't much to see. A small highway, a pink house, an old car.

Old car.

I kind of felt bad as I pushed Nat into the passenger seat and pulled out onto the highway, but this was an emergency. I was starving, she was unconscious, and we didn't know if my mother would recognize me. Plus, I was probably doing these people a favor. The old car - with a broken window and the remnants of a recently evicted possum family's nest - probably wouldn't bring in much if it was sold. I pressed the pedal down as far as it would go and sped off towards the west.

RODEO

JANUARY 5TH 00:32 PDT

A few hours later we arrived on the outskirts of Rodeo. From here it didn't look any different from our own back in our Earth. Nat was still tired from the use of all the kinetic energy and I was concentrating on quelling the fire brewing in the engine, so we took our time getting to the town. Seeing it now, I began to feel homesick. I glanced at Nat and saw her pulling the sleeves of her shirt over her wrists. I knew that she was trying to hide her emotions, but I knew her too well for that.

"Well, Nat, how close do you think -"

"Estimated arrival time is approximately three minutes, thirty eight seconds and counting." She shook her head. "Sorry, its the ground, like... I don't know anymore. But we're close." After a few more minutes of driving we reached Rodeo, and I saw how similar it was. Everything was in the same place, only the names were changed. We pulled over by the curb and got out of the car.

"Nat, I think we're going to find my mom. I can feel it."

Nat's POV  


Rachel didn't notice as I glanced away from her. Silently, I pulled the tracker Tim had put on my boot out of my pocket. This was the only way to get back, even if it went against my best friend. I just hope that when she sees what is really happening, she'll understand. "Rach, stay here, I'll be right back." Not listening for her answer, I went into one of those twenty four hour restaurants I remembered from when I was a kid. There were only a couple of people in there and when the hostess asked if I wanted a table, I shook my head.

"I'm sorry, my friend and I just got here, to visit a family member. I just want to make sure they gave us the right address."

"Sure thing, small town like this, you get to know everyone." I gave her the address. Her smile lowered into a frown. "Sorry, sweetie, I guess you misheard. No one's lived there for a good twenty years, and even then they never came outta their house. But you 'll find it eventually."

I nodded, my guess proving right. "Well, thank you anyways." I walked back to Rachel, feeling so guilty about the smile plastered on her face.

"Well?"

"We'll check it out." She led the way, and the hollowness grew. I should tell her, but she'll hate me for leaving it off. And not to mention saying I allowed us to be tracked. I sighed, easier this way. I saw the house from the corner of the street, and it looked bad. It seemed like it was about to cave in on itself. Rachel turned to me, the smile gone.

"But, maybe..."

"Maybe you guys moved. It is three years in the future." That was all I could give to help her keep her spirits up. "But we should still go in, get some rest before looking around anymore." It must've been nearly midnight and I felt like I was going to pass out any moment. She agreed and we went inside.

The bottom floor was relatively unscathed, so we laid down next to each other on the floor. I closed my eyes, wishing this could all be a dream. Would make everything so much easier.

JANUARY 5TH 02:03 PDT

I felt a ripple through the air outside, and I knew it had to be the Bio-ship. I tapped Rachel on the shoulder and she bolted up. "C'mon, we need to get outside."

She rubbed her eyes, trying to wake up. "Why?"

"Just come on." We ran out of the house, only to find the Team exiting the Bio-ship. In my mind I sounded off all the names. Nightwing, Blue Beetle, Robin, Lagoon Boy, Batgirl, Wonder Girl. All here for us. Damn it, now Rachel turned to me.

"How did they find us?"

I glanced at Tim, as they advanced. "Rach..."

"Nat, what did you do?"

I put the tracker in her hand. "Robin put it on my boot as we flew away in New Orleans."

She threw the tracker down. "What? You knew they were following us the whole time and you never said anything?"

"Rachel..."

"Nat, this isn't a joke! W - People die in the series!" She ran off, quicker than I've ever seen her run.

"Rachel!" I turned to the Team, their attention on me.

Nightwing spoke first. "My Gamma squad explained that you two had information..." I glared at him.

"You're really going on that now? What about Rachel? I can't go after her, I don't have any energy left to do it. And you..." Blue stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"We'll find her, hermana." I scoffed.

"When, after she has enough time to go super sonic? I know her. Her pyrokinesis is off the scale, once she figures out just how fast she's able to go, we'll never find her again." I looked at Nightwing. "We have to get her back, convince her to come with us. I promise, I wanted to go with you guys, and I'll do that, explain everything. Just, help me." They exchanged glances. 

Rachel's POV  


I couldn't believe Nat would hide that from me. It wasn't like her to keep secrets, especially ones that went against the plan we set up. Or, should I say, I set up. I dropped hard, hard on the edge of the cliff I used to play at when I was a kid, sitting and trying to hold back tears. It wasn't right, why did she do it? Was she that hung up on joining an imaginary team that she would literally call them to her? I didn't know.

Suddenly, a shadow appeared over me, and I heard Nat's voice. "Rachel, please let me explain." I looked up and saw her in that Bio-ship with the Team, like she was already one of them. I stood up, on the edge of the cliff.

"Why, so you can hide more stuff from your best friend? I don't want a part of it."

"Rachel, you are my best friend, but I... I was wrong to not tell you. There I said it, ok? I was wrong to not tell you about the tracker, but it's..."

"Wait... I don't care." And I jumped.

Dumb. I freaked, igniting (there goes my clothes) and screaming like a schoolgirl. But I didn't hit the ground.

Would it be cheesy to say flame on?

Quickly, I ignited more power, making a U-turn and flying back up. I was angry, and when I realized that, my flames grew hotter, and I went faster. Maybe... I heated up the flames, until they glowed white hot, going so fast, everything was a blur. Vaguely, I heard Nat's scared voice.

"Super sonic."

Nat's POV

"Super sonic. We have to follow her. As the air thins her flames will cool, slowing her down." Everyone looked at me. "It's basic science, just follow her!" Batgirl maneuvered the Bio-ship into a near vertical position, closing the hole in the side, and flew us up after my friend. If she'll still call me that after this. In all honestly, I was afraid I'd never be able to say sorry. I looked through the glass, at the trails of fire Rachel left.

"There." Batgirl stopped the Bio-ship and I saw Rachel was hovering in mid-air, her flames an orange again.

I sighed. "When I fly out, descend a bit. So if I start falling , you can catch me." Batgirl nodded and opened the door. Getting a green hue, I flew out to Rachel, ready for whatever she was about to say. "Let me talk for a second ok?" I felt the Bio-ship move down and I saw Rachel relax a bit.

"Fine."

"Look, I wanted you to see things for yourself, that your mom wasn't in Rodeo and..."

"Did you know that too?"

I nodded. "The woman I asked said no one lived in the house for nearly twenty years. I'm sorry." When she didn't answer, I went on. "I... I guess when I found out we were in Young Justice, I was overwhelmed. But I did it for a better reason than to just meet them and fangirl, no matter what you think. They could possibly be the only way for us to get home."

Rachel's POV

That shook me. "No, I'm sure we'd..."

She looked down. "What, eventually return? When we die, grow old? I couldn't take the chance, Rachel. I don't know what will happen if we can't get back. Or how much time has passed since we were transported here. I'm sorry, but it was all I could think of to save us."

I flew a little closer. "Nat, I..." I held a fiery hand out. "Friends?"

She smiled crookedly, making a shield and clasping my hand with hers. "Sure thing, Hothead. Now will you come with me, because I think we need to answer some stuff."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, let's go."

She stopped me. "Put out the fire." I understood. I did, and she easily caught me, reassembling my clothes as we descended to the Bio-ship. Every pair of eyes were on us, and I accidentally made eye contact with Blue, not that it was bad. Nightwing crossed his arms. "Talk."

We did, explaining our whole story from being in New York to where we were now, explaining how we were transported into their universe and we developed powers. They listened as the Bio-ship flew to, what I was guessing, Mount Justice. Nightwing didn't seem convinced.

"So, you two are from a reality where you say we're cartoons?"

Nat nodded. "Saturday morning cartoons. Got cancelled after two seasons, because TV companies don't know good shows when it hits 'em. Besides, didn't we start with that?" She looked at me. "We did start with that, right?"

Batgirl spoke. "They could be telling the truth."

Nat laughed. "Course we are, who would make this up anyways? It's too weird not be true. Besides, we want to help. We know what will happen, I mean unless it changes, but we know the basics at least."

Lagoon Boy was skeptical, obviously still untrusting. "Everything?"

Nat cringed. "That sounds really bad. But asks us anything, we'll know it. Probably."

"Okay, what threat are the Kroloteans?"

I answered this one. "Not much, honestly. They won't pose much of a threat overall, but obviously I can't say exactly what happens." Nat finished.

"Cause that could crash the reality and then everything would be really bad. Who knows what exactly would happen then?"

Nightwing nodded. "Ok." He looked at Batgirl. "We'll take them to HQ, and keep them on watch, until Miss Martian returns and we can find out what the truth really is."

Nat checked her watch. "That's gonna be easy. They should be nearly back by tomorrow. It is the fifth right? Side Note, you'll finally find out about the...ow!" I elbowed her in the ribs.

Nat's POV

MOUNT JUSTICE

JANUARY 6TH 10:00 EDT

We reached the Cave and we were told to stay in the room provided for us. If I wasn't so tired, I might've put up a fight to look around. We crashed on the two small cots, and were told to stay there until Miss M showed up. That night I couldn't fall asleep, just thinking about everything that could happen, so what seemed just seconds after closing my eyes, someone knocked on the door. Rachel and I stood immediately, both shocked by the noise. Carefully, I opened the door and saw Nightwing.

"I guess she's here, huh?"

He nodded, and we followed him out. We went to the main corridor - where the original team would train and stuff - and I saw Miss Martian, Superboy, and Beast Boy all standing there.

Beast Boy smiled. "Whoa, who're they? Nightwing are they..." He stopped, probably because Miss M psychically cut him off. Her amber eyes met ours.

"You claim to be from another dimension." We nodded and she stepped forward. "This will only take a second." Her eyes flashed green and every thought from New York till now flashed across my eyes. When it stopped, Miss M took a small step back, looking at Nightwing. "They are telling the truth, or what they believe to be the truth."

"Believe to be..." I met Rachel's eyes and stopped. No need to argue, she said we were right, and that was enough.

Nightwing nodded again. "So..." He stopped and I realized he didn't know our names. Duh, of course not, we aren't on any databases.

Rachel caught it too. "I'm Rachel aka Phoenix, she's Nat aka Kinetica."

"Well, if you agree for a probation to see if everything checks out, is there a chance you're going to stay?"

I looked apprehensively at Rachel, and she nodded. "Sure."

I smiled. "Definitely."

Beast Boy ran up. "Cool I can show you guys the Cave. C'mon." I dragged Rachel along, though she didn't seem the most excited about it. This was going to be great, being on the Team, going on missions. Inside I was screaming excitedly like a little kid, ignoring that pit in my stomach where all the bad feeling lay buried. For now anyways.


	3. Kiss My Sass

**A/N: Sup people, again we don't own anything and you know the rest. But I wanted to say thank you SO much for enjoying. Over 100 views in, like, a week and a half and five reviews, I love you guys! Keep it up!**

Nat's POV

MOUNT JUSTICE

JANUARY 6TH 12:15 EST

Gar took us through the entire Cave showing us how stuff worked and where everything was, which was very cool, until we got back to the hall that led to the bedrooms at least two hours later. Just as Gar was going to show us that, I heard a voice over what had to be an intercom. "Team, suit up and meet for mission debriefing."

Rachel and I looked at each other, but Beast Boy spoke up. "Well I gotta go, but you guys I think... uh"

I finished. "We'll go back to our room and pass time 'til the mission is over."

"Right." He scampered off, but the moment he was out of my sight I let a grin appear.

"Hey, Rach..."

I literally heard her rolling her eyes. "You want to follow, don't you?"

"Doy." I turned back to her. "Besides, we just need to find out where everyone is going, then, whamo, explore a bit to kill some time and suddenly help on Malina Island."

"No."

I feigned hurt. "What? No, don't pull that on me. The only way we get on the Team is if they trust us. Easiest way to earn trust, one may ask? Save somebody's life."

"So, you want to go to Malina Island for the sake of helping only to get on the Team? If so, I really need to reconsider the origin of our friendship." Quickly, I hit her on the arm.

"No, that's just a... side benefit." I gave my best pleading face. "C'mon Rach, you know you wanna be on the Team too, especially with a certain Blue Beetle around."

She raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean, exactly?"

I shrugged. "You'll find out if you come with me."

"Ah, yes, the good old 'Come with me, small child, into my house of candy so we can see the goodness inside, eh?' maneuver."

"Rachel, stop being a wuss and follow me."

Very quickly we made our way through the corridors, Rachel somehow able to sense the body heat of the Team, and we found the debriefing area. The whole team was gathered together, but I could just barely make out what they were saying.

"Everyone but Mal, Bumblebee, Beast Boy, and Blue Beetle will come to the Watchtower for further instruction. Bumblebee will continue her work in Ivy Town. You three - make sure that those two don't get into trouble." I'm pretty sure I knew who 'those two' were.

"Ouch," whispered Rachel.

"Shh."

Nightwing looked around to everyone, then nodded. "Let's head out." Nearly everyone went through the Zeta-tubes to the Watchtower, except those who Nightwing told to stay behind. Bumblebee left to go to Ivy Town, and the other three separated.

Garfield began walking to the doorway where we were standing. I opened a closet and shoved Rachel in it, squished myself in with her, and closed the door silently. Gar's footsteps came and went.

"He's gone," Rachel mumbled, her voice muffled by my hair.

"Are you sure?" She glared at me. "Okay, you're sure. Now what do we have here?"

Rachel's POV

I found a light switch by the door and flicked it. Covering the walls were shelves and boxes of old, ruined pieces of uniforms. I saw everything, and even costumes of heroes that were only on the Team during that five year skip. Nat seemed enthralled, which made me worrisome. "Nat..."

"Rachel, before you say anything, just let me talk." I rolled my eyes, but nodded for her to continue. "If you don't want to go to Malina Island, I'm okay with that, but we don't know just how long we will be here, so if we have powers, we're going to use them. That means we need uniforms."

I guess she was right, in some aspects. Slowly I looked around at all the uniforms and smiled a bit. "Just make mine fireproof and I'll think about it." Suddenly, Nat hugged me tight. "Uh... Nat?"

Just as quickly she let go. "Sorry, you hardly ever agree with me."

As she began to look through all of the costumes, I muttered to myself, "And I wonder why?" I coughed to cover it up, but she hit me anyway. I rubbed my now sore arm helped her look.

I had always wondered how they made superhero costumes, you know besides the spandex and Kevlar needed. As Nat gathered up scraps of costumes, I began to notice a pattern of styles and fabrics that reminded me of the ones in the movies. "Nat, how exactly are you going to do this?"

She really didn't actually answer me. "Fire means red, how 'bout yellow going with it. Then green for mine, and grey as a base. Okay, that works."

"Nat, are you even listening to me?" Silence. "Hey, Voldemort's behind you!"

"Yeah, tell 'em I say hi. And ask him why he lost his nose, I always forget." Okay, that was as close as I could get to her answering me. "Fav color?"

That was directed at me. "Red."

She nodded. "That's what I thought." At last she sat down, two different piles in front of her. "Fireproof for you." Then she looked up. "Somebody's coming."

Throughout the day we snuck in and out of the closet, Nat working on the costumes, while I sat and watched or made a small fire from the tip of my finger, kind of like Human Torch in The Fantastic Four. As the hours passed, we ran back into our room and Nat spread out the costumes for the final details. For the first time I got a good look at them.

Hers had green pants that ran into her boots, gloves, and a chest piece; the rest of her torso was grey, along with her boots, and arm pieces. Then I took a look at mine. It seemed to have a full red undersuit, with yellow running down the side of the pants; along with golden metallic boots and a v-neck breastplate-thingy that had a small phoenix on it. Even though I wasn't sure it was a good idea to wear them, it was really cool. She knew how to put a superhero costume together- which was the fault of her crazy obsession, I mean love, for them.

Nat's POV

MOUNT JUSTICE

JANUARY 6TH 19:57 EST

"Done! El completo! Whatever the hell you want to say, I'm done!" I raised my arms triumphantly in the air, and the green light finally died from the costumes after so much time working on them. I had finished with mine for awhile, going back once or twice for a few tweaks, but Rachel's... well let's just say that making something fireproof was really difficult. Especially on a time crunch, but I still did it. Ha, only in cartoons.

Speaking of which, was is strange to be disappointed that we weren't animated? It was something surprising, considering it would've been so cool to be animated Young Justice style- though it's awesome to see the live-action versions. I guess I should cross "meet a real-life superhero" off my bucket list.

Taking my costume in my hands, a fluttery feeling flew through me as I looked at it. It was time. I ran into the small bathroom off the bedroom, quickly changing. The thigh-high boots melded perfectly into the pants. The green on the sides made my hips smaller, which I'm glad for. Lastly, I kept my auburn hair in a ponytail, along with my goggles. They were pretty awesome. I ran into the bedroom again, only to find Rachel sitting on one of the cots, holding the costume limply in her hands.

Without looking up, she brushed a piece of hair away from her face and said, "Nat, do you really think this is a good idea?"

I wanted to tell the truth. No I didn't, but it were a lot of reasons why we had to do this. Greater good and such. I sighed and once again lied to my best friend. "Oh 'course it is, Hothead. It'll be fun."

She raised an eyebrow, not really believing me. I gave her a crooked smile and she rolled her eyes. "Fine." I fist pumped the air, causing her to hit me in the shoulder on her way to the bathroom. I knew that once we took this step, there wasn't any going back. Yet, that was the basis of comics, stay on the sidelines or go to the front and fight for what you believe it. Huh, that sounded very comic-booky. Points for me.

Rachel came out, and I was so glad to see her in the uniform. She also used the headband- a shocker considering I had never seen her in one before- her dirty blonde hair up in a messy bun.

I immediately grabbed my lifeline to everything a.k.a my cell phone. A world without my three hundred songs on it... damn I couldn't function. So obviously I had to find someway to charge it, it was already halfway to death. Stupid phone batteries. Typing Malina Island into maps I felt my hopes drop a bit. Southern Pacific; not like we weren't already on a cross-country road trip. "Well, what now?"

Rachel- or should I say Phoenix- looked over my shoulder before hitting it. "Duh, we Zeta to Hawaii, and then, like, a twenty minute flight to Malina. Piece of cake."

This is why I'm the superhero nerd and she isn't. "First, ow. Second, as great a plan as that is, Hothead, did you forget we aren't on the Zeta listings? It won't let us..." I had an idea. Stupid, but it could work. I ran to the small computer on the wall (honestly I don't know anymore), but the moment my fingertips touched the screen, images flew at me. Writings, codes, pictures... Instructions on how to add names to and silence the Zeta-tubes. Once again, only in cartoons.

Rachel's POV

MALINA ISLAND

JANUARY 6TH 20:36 HAST

All truth, I don't know how Nat did it, but she added us into the Zeta-tubes. Kinetica B-23, Phoenix B-24. It felt nice, but the best part is that she silenced it temporarily so the few Team members that were here would never know we left through the tubes. Perfect planning on our part. Well, mostly her part. As we went into the tube it kind of felt like you were turned into gas then reassembled, all happening at the speed of sound. It was awesome.

Now we landed on what had to be the Sector-3 that the Bat-family took out, since there were Manta-Guards unconscious all around. Nat looked around, probably not realizing she was levitating a few inches off the ground. "Na... Kinetica, should we go?"

She nodded, suddenly serious. "Yeah, let's do this." We ran in the small entrance, Nat still more floating, and we came to the scene; Team and League vs Kroloteans and Manta-peeps. "Kinetica, watch it." We dodged the oncoming remains of a Mech, that Superboy must've thrown. Another came at us and I lit up, throwing flame-balls- any better name escapes me- igniting the Mech and sending it tumbling to the ground when Nat literally ripped it apart telekinetically. Just in time for Nightwing to spot us.

He landed next to me. "I thought you were told to stay at the Cave."

Nat sat pretzel-style in mid-air. "I don't think those were your exact words, Nightwing, but just in case you need a reminder... we ain't on the Team." She looked down at something, but I couldn't make out what. Nightwing was blocking. "Well, that's not good." She flew off and I had to smile at the ex-Robin.

"She's got a point ya know."

Nat's POV

Taking down an evil Krolotean machine, is way less fun than it sounds. I landed on it in a handstand, twisting so the inner workings did the same, destroying the Mech from the inside out. Someone landed on it next to me and I may or may not have yelled, "Holy Mother." Yeah, I did, right in Wonder Woman's face. Well, not my smoothest moment, but she did overlook it.

"A new member of the Team?"

I tried to bite back everything bad I had to say to her- I had never been a Wonder Woman fan- and only said, "Still working on that part of it."

Rachel's POV 

I threw myself over the railing, spinning just for kicks and hurling a wall of fire at the nearest Kroloteans and Mechs. Vicious little buggers, but they sure didn't like fire. Must suck. I noticed La'gaan having a tough time with a Mech, not that I was eager after our last meeting, I blasted the Mech with white-hot flames until it was nothing but a melted hunk of metal. He glared up at me.

"You."

I smiled. "Me. You're welcome by the way." Then I felt a rush of pain come from my back and I lost my flames, falling. No, no...La'gann caught me just before I hit the ground. Sure, lucky me. I stand to see Black Manta, but I knew it was someone else.

His voice came out distorted, yet it was his. "Always have someone watch your back."

I saw Aquaman, Superboy, Nightwing, and Nat running up behind him, time to distract. Igniting a small flame I flicked it in front of his helmet. "Well, too bad. You went against your own word." A single hit from Aquaman, one punch to the helmet sent it flying off, revealing Kaldur'ahm, glaring at all of us.

In just the smallest whisper I spoke his name. Nat lowered her head, she felt the same way I did. Aquaman took a step back. "I had not believed Nightwing until this moment."

Kaldur turned his gaze on him, yelling at him in anger. "Because you did not want to believe!"

Superboy stood next to Aquaman, Lagoon Boy as well. "None of us wanted to believe this. How could you betray us like that?"

"You dare question me? After all of you let Tula die!" He made hard-water constructs of swords and I got it. Tula, the love of his life, dying on a mission. Kaldur, so traumatized. Nightwing stepped forward, trying to explain, but Lagoon Boy wasn't having it.

"Neptune's Beard! Don't coddle this traitor. He has joined forces with our king's greatest enemy."

Kaldur was in a fighting stance, ready for whatever was to come. "Do you mean the king that hid the true identity of my father from me?"

Aquaman spoke, "That was my error, Kaldur'ahm. No one else need suffer for it."

"All will suffer if Black Manta demands it. Blood is thicker than sea water."

A small gun thing came out of his suit and fired, but Nat was faster. She jumped in front of everyone before we could have a chance to think, and brought the ground up in front of us to act as a green-tinted shield, keeping the blast from us. When we were sure it was cleared, she dropped it, but Kaldur was gone.

Nat's POV

Nightwing and Superboy went after Kaldur, while I tried to fight off the headache coming on. They're going to find the bomb... we have to leave. I tripped over my own feet, Rachel barely catching me. "You okay?"

"Ask me after the bomb goes off." Wonder Girl and Lagoon Boy ran after the diving Manta-Flyer, but I still heard Nightwing's transmission. The bomb was going to go off, and we had to get to the Bio-ship. Simple enough. We followed Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl carrying Aquaman and Lagoon Boy out of the cave and into the just landed Bio-ship.

I vaguely heard Lagoon Boy's, "Neptune's Beard," but did manage to catch M'gann and Martian Manhunter shifting from Kroloteans into themselves. Cool to see in real life. M'gann saw us and I could've sworn she looked happy.

"Welcome aboard." Though I could tell she meant that in more ways than one. Seats came out of the floor and she was ready for take-off. "Everyone grab a seat, it's time to go."

Superboy looked around. "Wait, where's Superman?" I took a seat and picked at the seatbelt. We didn't need to go through this. Everyone could just find out on their own. We flew off as fast as we could, but it was as if time slowed, as if I could hear the final beep on the bomb. Energy roared from the island, hitting me full force, like a level-5 hurricane whipping through my mind. I held my head, trying to siphon anything off to the ship, make it go...

Rachel's POV

We took off, and we were home free. Then I felt something, nothing like I ever have before. I saw Nat clutch her head, curling into a ball as she began to glow brighter and brighter. Suddenly the explosion hit the Bio-ship and the heat hit me, engulfing me. I burned through the seatbelt and seared the seat as I fell to the floor...

MOUNT JUSTICE  
JANUARY 9TH 10:24 EST

I shot up, taking a deep breath. I looked around, finding Nat smiling crookedly. "'Sup, Hothead? Don't you just look splendiferous." A small line of stitches ran over her forehead, bruises across her jaw. Her jacket was zipped up all the way, which I knew meant she was hiding more injuries. But we were alive.

"Keep telling yourself that one. What day is it?" I rubbed my head, where bandages were wrapped. My hands were wrapped too, all the way up to my elbows. "What happened?"

"First, it's the ninth of January, thanks for asking. And my guess for number two. Overreaction of our powers when exposed to severe conditions. Such as a bomb going off. We were knocked out, I woke up in just a few hours, but... we thought we were going to lose you for a sec, Rachel. Don't worry, you're alright now, 'course. Just, you were burned. Like, second degree, and that shouldn't happen. At least from what I've gathered."

I raised an eyebrow. "You researched us?" I burst. "What, do you think this is some..."

She glared at me coldly, going into 'deathly calm' mode. "Rachel, stop it. I get it, you're not a fan of genetics and superpowers, but I am. I had to figure out what was up with us, and believe me, that's hard when your best friend was unconscious for three days. I was going nuts, and all I could do was work."

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Better than what I would've done."

"Burnt something to a crisp with rage and flame. I know." Then, Nightwing came in. He stood over us. looking obscenely tall.

"So, now you're awake, shall we go over what has happened? You disobeyed direct orders, hacked into the Cave's computer system, and put your lives at risk to follow the Team." A shadow of a smirk appeared on his face. "Congratulations."

Nat's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head. "Sorry, what?"

"You did what your gut told you, and helped the Team and the League, possibly saving a few of our lives in the process and risked everything to help those who you only know as... cartoons." He still obviously wasn't comfortable with that idea. "Kinetica, Phoenix, welcome to the Team." We hugged each other quickly, since my back was still killing me, and looked at Nightwing. And then it was ruined. "So, when should you two start school?"

**A/N: Hey I'm back, and at the bottom too. And how's about some trivia for you guys? The chapter names are songs that remind me of the story, so if anyone can guess all three without looking up the answers (please be honest, I'm trustin' you guys), you can have an OC featured as either Rachel or Nat's friend at their school. So good luck :)**


	4. Powerless

**A/N: We don't own anything except our OC's, the rest belongs to DC and Warner Bros. But hope you guys like this chapter. For me it was really fun to write.**

Nat's POV

_**MOUNT JUSTICE**_

_**JANUARY 11TH 07:15 EST**_

"Nat get up now, before I burn the sheets."

I groaned and pulled the covers over my head, trying to block out Rachel's yelling. I mean, sometimes she was like a tyrannical older sister. The first day of school is terrible, but moving in the middle of term... I've done that once and I do not want to be doing that again. Today though, I didn't seem to have any choice. Rachel hoisted up the one side of the bed, meanwhile I went flying off in a tangle of blankets.

"Ugh whyyyyyyy?"

She ripped the blanket away and yanked me up. I rubbed my eyes trying to fight of the tiredness, and it worked the moment I saw her school uniform. "Well don't you look spiffy."

She glared coldly at me. "It's not funny, Nat. Look, I have to go to school now, but you have an hour to get ready before you have to Zeta to Central City,

got it?" I nodded, then flopped face down onto the bed. She sighed and pulled me back up. "C'mon, Nat, don't make me do this. I can't drag you to school."

I picked up my watch and put it on my wrist. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Yes, so don't make me come back here to find out you were late."

I did a little salute. "Ma'am yes ma'am." She pressed a Post-it to my forehead and left the room. Taking it off slowly I saw a small note. Good luck Nat. "You too Hothead." I took the clothes I picked out last night off my dresser- long sleeve black shirt, ripped jeans, purple converse with one green lace and one black lace, and my favorite green jacket. I took my headband from the nightstand and got changed, pulling my hair into a classic ponytail.

"Tada."

Then I took out my phone from my jacket pocket, pulling up the background. Five year old me with pigtails dressed up as Irey West's Impulse and seven year old Rachel as Cleopatra in a blue toga thing. It brought back so many memories, but one had to admit - I was darn adorable. Smiling slightly I put it back in my pocket, then glared at my book across the room. In a frenzy it flew at me and knocked me down to the ground. "Well, this is just going to be perfect now isn't it?" And now I'm talking to myself. Way to go Nat.

Rachel's POV

_**GOTHAM CITY**_

_**JANUARY 11TH 7:35 EST**_

I tried to pull my skirt down to no avail. I heard a slight buzzing coming from my bag and pulled out the headphones. Quickly I put them on and pressed a small button on the one side."You sure you're okay going here?" asked Nightwing through the earpiece hidden in the headphone.

"Me? Here? Sure. I've moved, like, a billion times. No biggie," I lied, cracking my knuckles nervously. Who was I kidding? I'd gone to the same school my entire life. Good god, I couldn't wrap my head around going to my old high school with my entire normal freshman class, much less a school for preps with a dress code and everything.

"Alright, he said, and a burst of static told me he had hung up.

I played with the headphone cord, pressing it between my thumb and thumbnail on each hand. Nightwing had given me a map of the school and a list of my teachers (along with advice on each of them), and I studied it nervously. Then I felt someone tap my shoulder and I spun around as fast as I could to find a boy an inch shorter than me with black hair and blue eyes. Putting my headphones back in my bag I said, "Can I help you?"

"I'm Tim Drake, your student liaison for your first couple of days until you get to know where everything is."

I smirked. "Hi Rob."

His jaw dropped. "How... I mean how did you... did any... how do you..." I patted his shoulder.

"Don't hurt yourself buddy. Different dimension, remember? Besides, Nat made me sound off every Robin in the comics when she dragged me to the comic book store. But don't worry, your secret's safe with me, kid."

He cleared his throat nervously. "Well, ok?"

"Yep."

"Well, you've got fifteen minutes to get to class, put all your stuff in your locker, make new friends, etc., etc., but the teachers will be a bit flexible with you, seeing as you're new and stuff. Then - your schedule is in the front page of your binder?"

He was peering over my shoulder at my books. I pulled them closer to my chest. "Yes..."

"Ah, that's weird. We all have plain-faced binders. Move that to the inside, okay?"

"Uh..."

"Nice dress design, too. Have you ever considered going into -"

"Stop looking at my stuff!"

"Alright, alright, no need to go up in flames."

"Don't say -"

"Oh, hey, friends. Your locker's down the hall, to the right, about half down the hallway. Number 130. See you later."

"Uh..." I started, but Tim had already skirted through the crowd of kids all dressed exactly the same.

"Well, shit," I cursed softly, looking around. Although I knew it was probably bad, I hunched my shoulders, shielding my precious art from any prying eyes. With any luck, I might be able to finish the girl I was drawing by the end of the day. I glanced down at her for one second, admiring Nat's idea to have her hair done up in a neat bun rather than a ponytail -

Crash!

Well, shit.

I sat up, rubbing my head. I reached into my lap, looking for my art...

...which was scattered across the floor and now being trampled by cute heels and Nike sneakers.

"No!" I shouted, lashing out for them. I pulled them against me, and counted them. Four? I had seven before I ran into that person!

"Hello? Are you okay?" A hand waved in front of my face, and I blinked.

"Oh - oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay. Hey, these are really good!" She held up a picture and examined it. I couldn't believe her eyes were that black. Really, they had to be contacts. She had a pixie cut similar to the haircut of Matt Smith, and a bright green scarf wrapped around her neck. She smiled at me, revealing her sunburned cheeks.

"Uh, thanks." I grabbed them from her none too gently, and, for the heck of it, introduced myself. "I'm Rachel Pate."

"Cool! My name's Julia," she said, standing up and offering me a hand. As I stood, I saw a folder marked "Band" in her arms.

"You're in band?"

"Yeah. Are you in band? What do you play?"

"I play the flute."

"Oh, cool! I do, too!" I smiled nervously at her, and she beamed back at me. "So, do you have it with you?"

"Uh, no."

"Well let's go to the band room and ask if you can rent out one." This was going to be the start of a wonderful friendship.

Nat's POV

**CENTRAL CITY**

**JANUARY 11TH 7:40 CST**

Staring up at the school in front of me it reminded me of two things. I hated the first day of school and I'm short. Pretty freaking short, I mean, even the sixth graders running past me were at least two inches taller. Damn little... no, I was going to try and be positive today. Static sounded through my headphones and I heard Nightwing. "Any questions?"

"No, but maybe you'll help me in Geometry."

I heard him cough - which may or may not have been used to conceal a laugh - and he spoke again. "Well, good luck. Nightwing out." Static again, then silence. I hooked them around my neck and sighed. I wanted to go to the same school as Rachel, but apparently there was a better science program here, but... for some reason I wasn't really convinced. I walked into the school office and saw two office ladies behind the desk and a girl probably in my grade. Her long sandy blonde hair was tied back in a high ponytail, a way that in my old school I tended to avoid those who wore it that way. I walked up to the closest woman.

"Hi, I'm Natalia Hartly, I'm supposed to start here."

She smiled, her thin lips much too red. "Oh, of course, deary. You're the newest eighth

grader. Carrie, come here." The girl walked over. "This is Carrie Cazney. She's going to be your school tour guide. I assume you already have your schedule." I took it out of my bag and showed it to her. "Perfect. Carrie, can you show Natalia to her locker?"

"Sure thing. C'mon." I followed her out of the office, into the chaos that was middle school. "Oh, watch out." She pulled me to the side as a kid flew down the hall on his skateboard, then shook her fist at him. "Pete, sometimes I think you want to be in detention!"

As he turned the corner, he yelled. "Freedom, babe!"

Carrie rolled her eyes. "Pete's, well, pretty much..."

"A bad boy wannabe, that is also an idiot?"

She laughed. "How did you know?"

I smiled. "It's a gift." She pointed to one of the lockers and handed me a piece of

paper with the locker combo. "Uh, thanks."

"Hey, tour guide remember? And you need a friend being new and all." I wanted to say I had plenty of friends, but who did I have besides Rachel? I meant, Gar kinda acted like a little brother, which I'm totally cool with - except when he turned into a monkey and sat on my head while I was trying to sew up my costume. Then Robin just kept to himself, Wonder Girl was perky - really perky -, Batgirl and Bumblebee were a little too mature for their own good, Blue was still just talking to his scarab. The rest?

I shook myself out of my thoughts to see Carrie looking at me expectantly. "Well, sure.

What the heck?"

Carrie showed me to every class - she herself was in nearly all of them - and by the time it was eighth period American History, I was exhausted. I was sat next to Carrie - who had a habit of flipping her hair way too close to whipping my face- and a jock sort of guy named Johnny I think - who had a habit of looking at everyone else's notes. It didn't affect me of course, the teacher was going on about something I had already learned, and I was just waiting out the last ten minutes of the day, doodling. I couldn't draw very well, but it was still better than doing nothing.

It seemed that Carrie could tell I wasn't paying attention, she hit my arm. I flinched, but pretended I didn't care. At last I heard that oh so beautiful last bell and immediately ran to my locker, grabbed my stuff, and made my way out of that blasted school. But just as I was home free to make my way to the Zeta-tube, I heard Carrie again.

"Hey, Nat, wait up!" I sighed, this wasn't going to be good. "Hey, which way are you going?"

This is when my superb skills at lying - not that I used them often - kicked in. "Oh, I'm actually going to pick up some stuff for my mom before I go home."

"Oh, ok. I'll, I'll see you tomorrow then."

I smiled. "Sure thing." When she was out of my sight, I ran down to the Zeta-tube disguised as a call box.

"Recognized. Kinetica, B23." I was transported to the Cave in a matter of seconds, my watch going to the right time of 3:37 EST. Stupid time change. Rachel ran towards me, out of her school uniform, and shook me.

"Well, how was Central City?"

"Could you stop?" She did, and I continued. "It was fine."

"Well, Gotham was cool, you know, despite having those stupid uniforms."

"Uh huh." I opened up my bag, searching for something I grabbed at lunch.

"Nat, are you listening to me?"

"Nope. But keep talking while I walk." I made my way down the corridors to the rooms, Rachel talking about what happened at her school, including making Tim stutter for a good minute and a half. I, of course, didn't say anything until we got to our room, and I hopped onto my bed, still looking through my backpack. How hard was it to...ha!

"There you are, you little bastard." I pulled out my king sized Kit Kat, still intact I might add. I tossed my bag onto the ground. "Ok, now when you talk I'm gonna respond."

Unwrapping my candy bar I basically heard Rachel glare. "And where did you get that?"

"Vending machine at school. And no, you can't have any. I had to deal with a tour guide that was worse that at least seven of you put together."

"You're a terrible friend, you know that?"

"Love you too, Rach." I stood up, breaking off the first bar of the Kit Kat, when you'll never believe what happened. A green monkey shot into the room took my Kit Kat bar I was holding and ran off.

"Gar!" Then I sighed, and flopped back down. "I'm too tired to run after him."

"Ooh, what did you have first?"

I just groaned and ate my candy bar.

"Nat, I can't help if you don't tell me."

I grabbed an eraser out of my bag and threw it at her. "Oh solve your own problems first."

"Like what?"

I bit into another bar, and she glared at me. I raised an eyebrow saying You want me to talk with my mouth full? It was silent till I was done, then I smiled. "You know exactly what problems I'm talkin' about."

"That... that's not an answer!"

"Sure it is, just not the one you wanted." And that's what we did for the next few weeks, and getting to go on patrols, which were really cool.

Rachel's POV

**WASHINGTON D.C.**

**FEBRUARY 13TH 21:15 EST**

I sat on the edge of the building overlooking the Mall, and the Hall of Justice. Nat was next to me, doing a handstand. We were on patrol tonight for anything suspicious, and Nat decided on Washington D.C. I knew why, but that still didn't make it fun. "Kinetica you're going to hurt yourself."

"Really, you're pulling big sister act? Shame." She turned so she was perpendicular to the roof, then flipped back onto her feet. "Ha, who says that I don't have coordination."

"Everyone."

She pointed at me. "Exactly, until I got powers. Now, boom, splendiferous coordination."

I rolled my eyes. "Really, splendiferous?"

She nodded. "It's a perfectly good word. Besides, it fits it perfectly. But on a different note, it's nearly Valentine's Day."

"So?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, I was just wondering when Blue was going to turn into your favorite color, because you sure seem to like looking at it so much."

"Was that..."

"A nonchalant way to say that it's obvious you have a crush on Blue Beetle? Yes, yes it was."

"I do not like Blue. I mean, I guess he's a friend, but..."

She sat down next to me. "Please, girl, you have it bad for the beetle. Remember just yesterday when you saw him, you got so red I thought,"

"OKAY!" I cut her off, a blush coming on. So what if he was a little attractive? And you know, nice and sweet? What am I talking about? "Look, I don't like him in the way you're thinking of, that's for sure."

"Uh huh, sure."

"I..."

She raised a hand to tell me to stop, her face suddenly serious. "I think it's time. Look." She pointed down near the Hall of Justice, where the Super-Cycle flew down, with Superboy, Wolf, and Blue Beetle driving. I started to stand, but she shoved me back down. "Hold your horses, Lovebug. Ha, that's a pun in itself." Sometimes Nat was odd like that. One minute laughable and happy about everything, then serious and jaded.

"But they're..."

"I know, but we follow."

I sighed. "This is a stupid plan."

"Yet, every genius plan fails and every stupid plan works perfectly."

I glanced at her. "Then this is a genius plan."

She glared, her smiled dying. "You were a genius plan."

"Really?"

In a snobbish voice she mimicked me. "Really?" Then a huge bang erupted from the Hall. The Appelaxian gollem came from the side of the Hall, and I had to say it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. We watched as they tried to fight it, but failed, and it flew off with the two Intergang members.

"Now?"

She nodded. "Now."

**ARLINGTON**

**FEBRUARY 13TH 22:40 EST**

We tried following close behind the Super-Cycle hoping to go unnoticed, but Wolf quickly saw us and barked. The Cycle stopped and we were caught red handed. Superboy raised an eyebrow at us. "What are you doing here?"

I smiled sheepishly. "We were on patrol, and we saw that thing fly off..."

Nat cut in. "Appelaxian gollem."

"Right, that. So we followed after it and ended up behind you guys."

He sighed. "Fine, get in." The Cycle chirped happily and extended the back seat. Nat took the side, so I was between her and Blue. Well, this wasn't awkward in the least.

Blue spoke up, if only to break the silence. "So what's an Appellaxi-whatever?"

Nat raised her head up, excited that she got to talk about her superhero stuff. "Seriously? It's what brought the Justice League together. The Appelaxians were an alien race of energy beings that took the hosts of those husks that created the gollem. One of them was crystal that could redirect sonics. So when the Justice League came together and defeated them, they kept the husks as trophies."

I butted in. "So, Intergang must've used Apokoliptic tech to reanimate the husks and mold together into one giant gollem."

She nodded. "Exactly." She looked at Superboy. "Did that cover everything?"

He nodded. "Sphere's tracking it's energy readings, we're closing in."

I gave a thumbs up. "Yay."

Nat's POV

We heard the endings of Whisper and Ugly's conversation. "And with dis as my enforcer, I can expand Intergang's reach exponentially."

Superboy yelled out to him as the Super-Cycle lowered down. "Wow, five syllables. I didn't think you knew any words with more than two."

Ugly sneered. "Hilarious, but let's see who's laughin' when I..."

"Hey, Geno-Sphere, block all Apokoliptic signals in the area." The device in Ugly's hand shorted out and the gollem was free of it's control. But, was that a good thing? It hit the two thugs across the valley, then slammed the Super-Cycle out of the air. Rachel and I jumped out, me levitating both of us to the ground.

"Uh, it might be a good time to..." I pointed to her.

"Right!" She light up it orange flames and shot up to attack the gollem. I quickly gave myself long sleeves then used telekinesis to uproot one of the trees and thrust it at the gollem. I wrapped it around the legs and rooted it back in the ground. Suddenly, roots came out of the ground and hit me a good ten feet. I was going to feel that one later.

By the time I was able to sit up, the gollem was already gone to the power plant, and Superboy held Whisper and Ugly by their collars. I walked up with Rachel, Blue, and Wolf. Superboy turned to Blue. "Lock 'em down."

He switched to that stupid staple mode and 'stapled' Whisper and Ugly to the tree. Suddenly he shuttered. "Eeeeww, no."

I glanced at Rachel, then walked after Superboy, leaving them to themselves. The weirdos they are and all. We hopped into the Super-Cycle as Supes yelled. "Blue, fight your inner demons later."

"Demon," he said as Rachel got in beside me. "Singular. One's enough, believe me." Yeah, I knew what he was talking about except for the fact that I had demons. Plural. We took off after the gollem, jumping into attack mode as we were over the power plant. Rachel lit up like a candle.

"Nat, what do we do?"

I shrugged. "I don't wanna hurt it, but until they figure out how to talk to it..."

"Yeah, gotcha." Blue tried to staple it down, but that didn't seem to work. Obviously.

Superboy looked at me. "Can't you take it apart?"

I dodged a huge hand, then yelled down to him. "Am I glowing a bright green? No, so I can't!" A burning Rachel came flying at me, and I put up a shield to block as we fell to the ground.

Blue struggled to get up. "I don't suppose we could ask it to play nice?"

Rachel rolled onto her back. "Now you have the right idea, Bugboy."

"Wait, it's possible?"

She smiled at him. "The scarab knows how."

Rachel's POV

Blue stood up, his one arm transformed into a sonic blaster thingy. "Blue, do it now!" He shot the sonics out and when it reached the gollem, red rings came back at him and he himself glowed a dim red. Superboy was shocked and tried to break the connection.

"Blue, stop before it kills you."

Nat limped over. "It's not attacking, it's communicating."

Blue's eyes went full gold and the voice that sound more like the scarab came out. "We bare the stillness of wood, of stone, of crystal, of metal. All is noise, all is life - is pain. We sense the power in this place, power enough to destroy us, to end the pain. To be still once again."

Nat looked up at the gollem. "We'll help you."

Then a second sonic came from behind, and the Appelaxian was... destroyed. Black Beetle, I remembered that much from this episode. Blue fell down, unconscious, but I caught him, placing his head in my lap. Two guards came and congratulated us on destroying the gollem, but it wasn't worth congratulating.

Ashes rained down, glowing like fireflies I had once seen outside at a family reunion. It would have been prettier if I knew they weren't the remnants of something terribly sad and terribly misused. Blue opened his eyes.

"It was... alive, but now it's gone. Who attacked, who killed it?" I just shook my head. I couldn't say anything, couldn't tell him. Superboy came over holding Nat up as she limped, her ankle twisted.

"Someone ugly," Superboy said, with an angry look at the tree line.

Nat's POV

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**FEBRUARY 14TH 00:25 EST**

We found Ugly and Whisper, but they were... comatose almost. It was weird. We took them to Belle Reve, but I still don't know what happened to them. When we got back to the Cave, it was well after midnight. I sat on one of the hospital beds as Superboy handed me wrapping for my ankle. "Thanks." I had changed out of my uniform into pajamas.

"No problem." I straightened my ankle, grimacing at the pain. Wrapping it up tight, I sighed.

"Thanks for, you know, not telling us to go back to patrol."

"I wouldn't want someone doing that to me."

Standing warily on my feet, I walked over to the Tylenol and swallowed two of them, and noticing Blue and Rachel talking. "Hmm." Two little lovebirds, quite the cute couple. But what to call it.

I got it. They were Firebeetle.

Unknown POV

**NEW YORK CITY**

**FEBURARY 15TH 23:15 EST**

I sat at the bus stop, trying to fight away the cold. This was what, the fourth time I had run away from a foster home? The last one had been fairly similar to the others- the pervy dad, prissy mom, and obnoxious children- but somehow it had been worse. By the third month I couldn't take it anymore and snuck out in the middle of the night with a small backpack filled with everything I owned. That was how I had ended up here, shivering in my thin jacket on the dark and deserted bench, waiting for the next bus.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw two men heading towards me. I had lived in the city all my life and knew that when two men approached a girl, there was no way in hell they had good intentions. I slowly got up and walked down the street, not wanting to run and catch their attention. If I hurried, I could make it to the abandoned building down the block before they caught up to me. As I turned a corner and looked back to see if they had followed, a huge form slammed into me. I couldn't make out any features as I fell to the ground only the deep maniacal laughter. I hit the ground head first, grinding my teeth at the pain. The two men from before stood over me, and a third figure loomed behind them. As black dots swarmed my vision, I tried to make something- anything- happen. Nothing did. As I opened my mouth to scream for help a huge black boot slammed into my head, and then the blackness overwhelmed me.

**A/N: Hey guys, trivia question! Some of the characters in this chapter are based off of real people. Can you name them all? Sorry there's no prizey thingy, I was just too tired to come up with anything.**


	5. Sail

**A/N: Hey people, this one is a little shorter than usual (mostly because there wasn't much inspiration for this chapter), but I really hope you guys like it. We own nothing except our OC's, and the rest belongs to Warner Bros.**

Rachel's POV

_**QURAC**_

_**FEBRUARY 19TH 19:06 UTC+2**_

I picked at the seatbelt, listening to Nightwing explain our mission. It was me, Nat, Cassie, Batgirl, Bumblebee, and Miss M all in the Bio-Ship now passing over Qurac. "Investigating the origin of the bomb that destroyed the Krolotean forces is still a high priority. We may suspect it may have been smuggled in via Boom-Tube." I glanced at Nat, who was trying to nonchalantly look out of the window. "Watchtower sensor scans of Bialya have reported an uptake of Boom-Tube activity. Alpha Squad, your mission…"

Wonder Girl jumped at the opportunity to explain. "Is to sneak behind enemy lines, recon known Boom-Tube hotspots, and find alien tech matching the bomb. Oh, and don't get caught or create an international incident." She pressed her Wonder Girl symbol to switch to stealth mode. "Right?"

"That about covers it." I pressed my own stealth mode button, switching the red to black and the yellow to grey as Miss M spoke up.

"Psimon?"

"We have confirmation that Bialya's telepathic enforcer is still catatonic in a Quraci hospital. After his last encounter with you." Sheesh, would it be nice to know the details on that one. "But Bialya's dictator, Queen Bee, is another story. Her ability to control the minds of men is why Alpha is an all female squad."

Batgirl rolled her eyes. "Oh really? And would you have felt the need to justify an all male squad for a given mission?"

Nightwing suddenly looked very uncomfortable, and coughed before continuing. "Uh, ther… there's no right answer for that, uh, is there? So… Nightwing out." The screen disappeared and Batgirl spoke again.

"Queen Bee isn't the only one who can mess with a man's mind." We all broke down in a fit of laughter and giggles. We had been on Earth-16 for just over a month, and in all honestly, we were apart of the group. It was as if we had known them for years. And it was great. We continued on through the Quraci sky, and I knew that as we got closer to Bialya, the darker the sky got.

"Hey." I poked Nat on her shoulder. The girls had gone into their own conversations, so I felt a little obligated to start one with Nat. "So, are you excited?"

"For what?"

I poked her again, smiling mischievously. "Oh I don't know, it just that this is episode five and that means it's almost episode six."

"So?" I could tell she was trying not to be interested, but she couldn't hide that little spark in her eye.

"Well, you know…" I was cut off my Miss M.

"We're approaching the first hotspot, Phoenix, Kinetica, take this one. We'll drop off Bumblebee at Batgirl at hotspot two, with Wonder Girl and I moving to hotspot three. We'll rendezvous at the last hotspot. Any trouble, report in." We nodded and a hole opened up beneath us. Nat and I dropped down into the sand.

"Anyways, as I was saying…"

She glared at me before looking over the rise at the hotspot. "Look, can we talk about this later? We have to finish this mission, plus I have to make up a huge chemistry test that I'm not prepared for. So there are two guards. Let's get this done, ok?"

I sighed. "Fine, but we will talk about this when we get back."

"Sure, whatever." We hopped over the ridge, into the line of fire. The two Bialyains guards shot at us, but Nat had the brilliant idea to create a wall of sand. "Can you get some heat?"

"Why?"

"Just do it." I lit up and heated the sand until it began to sparkle. Glass, duh. We threw ourselves out of the way as the glass shattered. I saw Nat's eyes glow green though and the gun flew out of their hands and came down on them, knocking them out. I had to admit, she was efficient with those powers."The glass would've been more effective, but a distraction works too. C'mon."

"Uh, where are we going?"

She sat down on the ground criss-cross. "Light it up, Hothead." She closed her eyes and I got the message. The small building wasn't big enough to hold more than three people, so I let it burn. Nothing inside. Nat used her telekinesis to hold the fire in place, along with stopping any smoke from signalling there was trouble to any surrounding Bialyain troops.

"Great, we burnt an innocent building."

"Shut it."

"Well someone's snippy tonight." She clicked the buttons on her right arm piece, and talked into it. "Kinetica to Bio-Ship, Hotspot one was a bust."

"Same here. Continue on to the next hotspot, we'll meet up soon."

Nat's POV

_**BIALYA**_

_**FEBRUARY 20TH 00:12 UTC+2**_

The rest of the hotspots were just like the first, and as Batgirl looked over at the final one with her binoculars, I knew we were in trouble. Guards were positioned everywhere, with big artillery to add to the hugeness of the building.

Batgirl began talking mentally through Miss M's link as she continued to look at the facility. _The last hotspots have all been busts but…_

Wonder Girl cut her off. She had a knack for doing that. _But this much security must be guarding some big deal alien stuff, right?_

Miss M looked serious, which was rare for her in my opinion. _It's our job to find out. Batgirl, you and Kinetica take the North hanger, I'll take the south, Bee the middle, Phoenix the opposite. Wonder Girl, hold position._

She was ultimately defeated. _What? Wait, why can't I go in?_

Bumblebee flew in front of her. _Cause you're Wonder Girl honey, not Stealther Girl._

_I can do this._

I gave her a little smile._ Nobody's knockin' your enthusiasm, Cassie, and believe me, in a firefight there ain't no one else I'd rather have at my side. But it's recon, and that means we need a lookout._

Miss M nodded at me, _Thank you, Kinetica. Use the psychic link only. The Bialyains have the tech to intercept our radio. Anything goes wrong, scatter and meet at the rendezvous point, clear?_

All but Cass said clear and Batgirl and I took off. For this mission I used stealth, but I also kept the long sleeves. My ankle still bothered me, but I had to get over that. Babs taught me what to do before we came on the mission, so we slipped into the building unnoticed by way of airshaft. I was a good three inches and ten pounds lighter than her, so I went in first with ease.

"C'mon." She slid in, but it was a tight fit. I never thought I'd say this, but it's nice to be small sometimes. I quickly downloaded the map of the building from Batgirl, then led the way to the main hanger. "This so isn't cool anymore." I squeezed through a tight vent and fell down a vertical drop. I stopped just before I could hit and caught Batgirl on her way down.

"A little warning would be helpful."

"So sorry, I never knew you wanted to land on a person. I'll keep that in mind next time." Suddenly an alarm went off and I knew we were in trouble.

"Kinetica, a little help?" I turned to find Batgirl stuck in the vent, and I shimmied down to help.

Rachel's POV

I heard the alarm sound and immediately went to the roof just before the doors closed. Way too close. I ran across the roof to the other side, and looked down to see Wonder Girl pinned by Devastation. I could hear the conversation. "And who the heck are you? Wonder Baby? Wonder Brat? The Blonde Wonder?"

I took a breath and opened my mouth. "Nope, that's taken." I flew down, landing next to them. "Phoenix at your service. Or, maybe not." Then Icicle Jr. ran up and I lit up, orange flames forming all around me. "Sup?"

He blasted the ice at me, which I melted. I looked at Cassie and she nodded. Go time. She flew up and tossed Devastation to the ground as I threw a volley of fireballs at Junior. I met up with her to dodge the oncoming bullets. We had to regroup as soon as possible, before somebody - meaning me - got hurt.

Nat's POV

I was laying on my back, trying to help Batgirl out of her tight squeeze. "Jesus, how did you get in here in the first place?"

Before she could answer I saw Bumblebee over top of me, looking at Batgirl. "Girl, you like turkey stuffing on Thanksgiving."

I held back my laugh as Batgirl replied, "Thank you, that's very helpful."

"This was your escape route?"

I shook my head. "No, we were already here when the alarms went off. Let's get to the rendezvous point. Look." I pulled up the map of the building. "Here's the thing. The shafts connect every hanger, but there's a larger chamber below. You need to check it out." I expanded the shaft so Batgirl could get through. "I go to the rendezvous point. Meet up as soon as possible."

"Go."

I propelled myself down one of the shafts, sliding and twisting out towards the exit.

Rachel's POV

Miss M, Cass, Nat, and I stood, well Nat was pacing. "Ok, so we just have to wait. Bee's fine, but… uh nevermind."

"Kinetica?"

She crossed her arms. "It's nothing."

"I wouldn't say that." I turned to see Bumblebee flying towards us, making Wonder Girl ecstatic.

"Bee, you're alive!"

She put her hands on her hips. "Was that really in question? Batgirl's been captured, so we have to go. I've brief you on the way. I have a plan."

"This is stupid." Nat smiled crookedly at the comment.

"Glad you finally noticed, Hothead. Now just wait." The cave began to go into lockdown, and I know it was almost time. "Remember, you go for the Icicle…"

"And you go for Devastation. I know."

"Good. GO!" She leapt down, telekinetically throwing Mammoth and Devastation into the wall. I flew after Icicle Jr., kicking him in the face before he made it to the controls.

"Hey, Iceboy."

"Watch it!" Nat's voice rang out as she flew by me, with Devastation following. "Uh, a little help?" I thrust a wall of fire at Icicle Jr then ran to help my friend.

"Geez, you can pick 'em, huh?" I dodged a punch, but Nat was grabbed by the collar and thrown into me. We landed on the ground, her on top. "Nat?"

She opened her eyes, having them flash a bright green as she went after the plane, pushing Mammoth off. Oh God, they got her pissed. May the villains beware. I met up with Miss M and Bumblebee as we went after the plane. We landed on the top with Wonder Girl and Nat.

_We did it!_

Nat's POV

No we didn't. Mammoth tossed a - I don't know, some construction machine - at the plane, cutting one of the wings off, and knocking us off of the plane. I watched as the other wing flew off and the plane plummeted. "Wonder Girl!" We flew after it with the other behind us, trying to stop the plane from dropping anymore. Her strength and my telekinesis didn't make a dent. "It's too heavy."

Miss Martian yelled out, "For me too. Time for plan B!" Just as I thought we were going to die, the Bio-Ship lifted the plane up and I let out a breath.

"We're alive."

Cassie smiled. "WOOHOO! Yes!" We high-fived.

Rachel's POV

MOUNT JUSTICE

FEBRUARY 20TH 03:24 EST

We stood in the Cave as Nightwing pulled up the screen. "Psimon planted mental suggestions in the minds of his doctors and nurses. They've been tending an empty bed for months. I'm sorry."

Nat shrugged. "It had to happen eventually."

"So, no sign of any alien tech?"

Miss M explained. "It was clear in Shimmer's mind that Queen Bee was acting as a middleman, delivering abducted humans to an unknown partner."

Batgirl continued. "We questioned the abductees, most were runaways and all were taken after the destruction of Malina Island."

I nodded. "So it's not the Kroloteans. It's something else entirely. But who's the partner?"

Cassie sighed. "Another unanswered question."

Nightwing stepped forward. "Unanswered questions keep the investigation moving forward. You saved lives, you got each other home save. It's a successful mission in my book." He turned to all of us. "Good work Alpha." We were all pulled into a group hug.

Nat smiled wide. "We did it! Now let's go to bed."

We all laughed but complied. I gave Nat a piggyback since she looked like she was going to pass out. "C'mon kiddo."

She hit me lightly on the shoulder. "Shut it. Best friend." She added the end so I didn't drop her.

"Good girl."

"Oh I'm too tired to try and complain."

"Wow its a three a.m. miracle." I walked into our bedroom and plopped her on her bed. She fell asleep instantly and as I lay down on my own bed, sleep was coming for me too. Amen to that.

**A/N: Ok so just one little thing I came up with really quick for this trivia question. In the episode "Images", who were the creators of _Hello, Megan_?**


	6. Turn on the Ignition

**A/N: We don't own anything except our OC's. But I hope you guys like this chapter, it was my favorite so far to write.**

Nat's POV

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**FEBRUARY 28TH 08:30 EST**

I was woken up to someone bouncing on my bed. Opening my eyes slowly I saw Gar, in monkey form, hopping from one side of my bed to the other. "Ugh, Gar." I pulled the covers over my head, trying to block it out. I still wasn't used to late night patrol, and three in a row really took a toll on me. Then, the bed weighed down on the left side.

"Nat, get up."

I just moaned - my way of saying shut up I'm sleeping. Turning on my side, I came face-to-face with a small green kitten. "You know I don't like cats." He morphed into a Labrador Retriever puppy. "Aw." I poked his nose and knew I couldn't win. Sitting up I watched as he turned back into himself, giving me a hug.

"C'mon, M'gann's making breakfast for everybody." Oh I forgot, every Sunday Miss M did the classic homemade breakfast for the Team members that actually lived in the Cave.

"Fine, give me five minutes." I stood up and watched Gar run out of the room. He was like a little brother sometimes… Anyway, I put on my uniform, but changed the pants to shorts, took off the gloves and arm pieces, and kept my goggles at my side. I pulled on my Converse, threw a hoodie on, and quickly braided my hair before opening the door.

Gar smiled. "Four minutes, thirty seconds. Congratulations."

I scrunched up my nose - Rachel told me I did it when I was too lazy to be sarcastic. He didn't seem to notice however, because he just changed into the monkey again and landed on my shoulder. I walked down to the kitchen to see M'gann hard at work. Gar morphed next to me as I waved.

"Hey M'gann."

She smiled. "Well it's nice to see someone up. Would you mind helping?"

"She'd love to." Rachel appeared behind me, her one arm resting on Jaime's shoulder. I smirked, just friends huh? "Nat always helped her mom with cooking. Oh my God, remember her cookies? They are the best things ever. And Nat…"

I held my hand up. "Ok, I think they get it, Rach." I turned back to M'gann. "I'd love to help."

"Great, how are you at making pancakes?"

"Awesome."

Rachel, Jaime, Gar, and I sat on the couches in the living room, eating our breakfasts. We invited Robin, but he just followed after Nightwing. I just had toast and bacon on my plate. Why not more? Well, I hate pancakes - I'm sorry ok, that's just the way it is - there weren't any waffles in the freezer, and eggs weird me out. That one is a really long story.

"So Nat." I looked at Rachel, who was pointing at me with a strip of bacon. "Aren't you excited for today?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Why? It isn't a holiday, it's not Thursday, and it sure isn't the thirteenth."

Gar was confused. "Why the thirteenth?"

Rachel passed it off. "Her favorite number. But it's just that it's the twenty-eighth…"

I cut her off before she could say anything. "And that means it's not the end of February 'cause it's a leap year." I got up and threw my uneaten food away. "Well, I have Geometry homework that won't do itself." With that I ran out of the room.

"Hey, Nat." Rachel grabbed my shoulder.

"What's up?" I kept walking, but she followed.

"Are you okay?"

"Peachy." I tugged at the sleeves of my hoodie, trying to pull them down farther. I didn't want to talk, especially about what she wanted to.

Rachel's POV

"Nat." She looked frailer than usual, younger. I wanted to think it was just because she didn't have her bangs in her face like usual, but this was different. She'd been acting jittery for the past few days, and I knew why. Whether or not she did was another story. I forged on.

"Ok, so you want to use one word sentences, that's cool. But I need to know what's up."

She laughed, and I knew it was forced. I taught her how to fake laugh. "Nothin' is wrong, Patey. I'm just tired."

Strike two, she called me Patey. She hadn't done that since she was ten.

"Uh huh, sure Red Rose." She blushed furiously. She hated her middle name, much less any nickname based off of it. "I just think you've been different."

Silence, and she was out. When she didn't talk, she was messed up. Before I could get her to, she darted off, hands in her pockets.

I sighed, but felt a hand on my shoulder. "What's wrong?" I turned to see Jaime.

I shook my head. "Nat, she's the baby sister I've wanted, but she's just…" Shaking my head again, I looked at him. Over these few weeks, we hung out a lot. He blamed his little sister, Milagro, for wanting me to come over.

"Don't worry, she'll be ok. She's a tough kid."

I rolled my eyes. "I… I guess you're right. So what're you doin' later?"

"My mom's making me take Milagro to her friend's birthday, but I'm sure she'd be fine if you came along. And, you know…"

"Your sister will love it." He ran his hand through his hair nervously. I linked my arm with his. "Well come on, I'm sure your sister would like it if I hung out a little before."

"Exactly." We walked to the Zeta-Tubes, me punching in the correct destination.

"_Recognized; Blue Beetle B22, Phoenix B24_." We stepped out into El Paso. It was at least in the low seventies, meanwhile Happy Harbor was lucky to have been in the fifties. How Nat could walk around in shorts was beyond me. Then I had an idea. I jumped onto Jaime's back, which was my way of saying I wanted a ride. He was shocked at first, but he got adjusted.

"Any reason you want me to carry you?"

I smiled. "Because I'm the Flame Princess and you are my hero in blue." He laughed with me and I wrapped my arms around his neck. "Well c'mon, we don't have all day."

"Of course your Highness." He suddenly let go of me and I shrieked in that one second of falling before he caught me again. "Oh, did I do that?"

I frowned. "That was not funny."

"Sure it was, you just didn't get the humor." I noticed he wasn't talking to the Scarab whenever we hung out. It either wasn't speaking - which I highly doubt - or Jaime was ignoring it.

"Whatever." I flicked the zipper of his hoodie. "Geez, you walk slow."

"Well if I wasn't carrying a girl who's goal seems to be… Hey we're here." I leapt down, then made him face me before we went in.

"What were you gonna say?"

"Nothing."

"Blue…"

"RACHEL!" Milagro ran out of the house, cutting off our conversation. She darted straight to me, clutching my leg. I knew I would have to save the conversation for later, and believe me, I was planning on it.

Nat's POV

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**FEBRUARY 28TH 10:07 EST**

I had changed into my usual uniform as I walked with Robin and Beast Boy. I was tapping my nails on my leg, and I noticed just how long they were getting, but were still painted a perfect gold. It may not have matched my outfit, but it was still pretty. I don't know why I was nervous - in fact, I had been nervous all week. Rachel noticed and I had I feeling so did a lot of people. They just wouldn't say anything.

We walked down the halls to find Nightwing looking at the files, decryption and translation completed apparently, and I checked the time. Damnit, there just wasn't… my thoughts were cut off my Robin's voice. "Is that the Kroloteans intell?"

Gar cocked his head. "What Krolotean intell?"

I answered before Nightwing could. "Data files M'gann and J'onn got from Malina Island before it was destroyed."

He held his index finger up. "Eh, noted."

Nightwing stared at the screen. "Apparently the Kroloteans were snatching humans to use… as guinea pigs. They were hoping to find something. Something inside us."

Robin was intrigued. "What?"

"There's no English word for it. The nearest translation is… Meta-gene."

I raised an eyebrow, trying to look confused. "And a Meta-gene is, what?"

I glanced over to see Beast Boy elbow Rob. "Never meta-gena I didn't like."

Before anyone could react, the computer called out. "_Warning: Unknown energy impulse detected_." Thunder cracked from outside, and a bright circle of lightning and energy was beginning to appear in the room. Nightwing held out his arm to keep us back as a machine appeared where the sphere had been and dropped to the ground. The time machine, damnit.

Nightwing got out his sticky-thingies. "Stand ready." Robin pulled out his bo staff, BB crouched, ready to morph, and my hands glowed green, ready to hurl anything. Not that I would be able hit him. The door of the machine opened and out came him. He stood and held out his arms.

"Tada!"

We were all speechless. There he was, the little shit, smiling as the computer alerted them about an intruder. Gee, thanks for the intell.

Nightwing spoke. "Computer, lockdown Cave."

Beast Boy turned to us. "Well, I think we found our unknown energy impulse."

"Impulse, that's so crash!" We all looked back at him as he began to speak very fast. "Catchy, dramatic, one word like Nightwing," He sped over to each in turn, "And Robin, and Kinetica, and Beast Boy. Except that's two words, Blue Beetle's two words. Hey, is he here too?" He zoomed to the edge of the hallway. "Nevermind, Impulse, can find that out for himself. Haha!" Then he was gone.

Nightwing glared. "You three, take him down now!" We ran, separating. I mentally looked at my map of the Cave, and based off of the episode I made a sharp right. I thought of the scene in my head, by now Beast Boy crashed. Then a few seconds into the kitchen, five for Robin, the down the hallway and…

I heard him laugh, "Ha, can't catch me that…" I ran into the room, jutting out my leg to throw him off balance and making him fall. I just kept skidding until Nightwing caught my arm before handcuffing Impulse's wrists and ankles.

I looked at Nightwing. "I think that was pretty crash."

Impulse shifted so he could see us. "For you maybe, me.." He eyed me. "I'm totally feeling the mode."

I could feel his green eyes on me as I glanced at Nightwing. "I'll find Rob and Beast Boy."

"Call Phoenix too."

Rachel's POV

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**FEBRUARY 28TH 10:30 EST**

The five of us stood over Impulse, who was smiling. Nat called me to explain, and I immediately came. Now, he told us he was a tourist, I was skeptical. But as I looked at Nat, she refused to make eye contact with the young speedster. I had only seen her like this when her then crush was trying to flirt with her other friend.

Robin peered at Impulse. "So you're a tourist, from the future?"

Impulse just smiled and made the expressions Nat fangirled over the first time she saw them. "Why so surprised? Half the meat at Comic-Con are from my era." We glanced at each other, unconvinced so he continued. "Look, look, look guys we should all be friends. I'm really one a you, part of the heroic legacy, right? My name is Bart Allen. You know, grandson of Barry Allen, the Flash?"

Beast Boy crossed his arms. "Noted. Not believed, but noted."

"What's not to believe? I clearly have Flash's speed, his amazing good looks," I thought I saw his eyes shift to Nat for a second, "frankly I can't wait to meet him. Uh, you know, back when he was in his prime."

I saw Nat huff. Why was she suddenly so negative about this? Impulse was her favorite character in season 2. Hell, she was furious when they changed Bart to Wally for season 1. Why wasn't she excited, or showing at least some fangirling notions? Before I could question it Nightwing walked in with a glass of water.

"Well, Bart, coming all the way from the future you must've worked up quite a thirst."

"Thanks." He took a sip, then had a revelation. "Ah, you're trying to get a DNA sample, you need my spit." He then spat into the cup. "That's such a Dick Grayson thing to do."

Robin was shocked. "How did…"

Impulse regarded all of us. "See I know stuff only a future boy would know. Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Garfield Logan, Rachel Pate, and Kenny Hartly."

Beast Boy pointed to each of them. "Your name's Tim, and your's is Dick? And Kenny?"

Nat scoffed, but Impulse spoke before she could correct him. "Oops, spoilers. This secret identity thing is so retro, I mean you can call me Impulse or Bart or Bart Allen or Bart Impulse Allen it's all crash."

Robin looked to Nightwing. "Is it possible he could be telling the truth? That he might actually be from the future?"

Beast Boy strode forward. "Tell us something we don't know, yet. When do I become leader of the Team? When do I join the Justice League? When do I get my own reality series?"

He answered honestly. "Sorry BB, never was the best history student. Besides, can't risk altering the time stream. We do that we're all feeling the mode."

"And the mode… would be bad?"

Nat said, very quietly, "Doesn't get worse. Always better to crash the mode." She was annoyed by the Kenny thing, but I thought it was adorable.

Then the computer spoke up, "_Recognized: Malcolm Duncan A10_."

Impulse piped up. "Ooh, sounds like a door opening somewhere. And that's my que." He vibrated out of his cuffs and waved. "Bye bye." And he was gone.

Beast Boy nodded at us. "Don't worry, the Peregrine Falcon is the world's fastest bird, he won't get away."

Nat spoke, louder this time. "Nightwing, call up Wally and Barry. Speed Racer's headin' to Central City and you might want them to be prepared for what's comin'." She walked out and I followed, utterly shocked by her abruptness.

"Hey." She didn't answer. "Aww, c'mon Kenny." She whirled around, glaring at me.

"Don't call me that, okay?"

"Well, why weren't you fangirling over Bart? That's what I was expecting."

She just shook her head, and clicked a button on her arm piece. She nodded. "I don't exactly gotta choice do I?... That's what I thought. Yeah, I'll change and head off when we're in the clear…. Yeah, Kinetica out."

"Well?"

"Nightwing's sendin' me to figure it out. You're welcome to come…"

"Oh no, girl. This is all you. Enjoy."

Nat's POV

**CENTRAL CITY**

**FEBRUARY 28TH 13:05 EST**

Stupid Kenny, I mean, what kind of name is that? I changed into my civvies, but I wasn't happy with this situation. Hell, I didn't like the situation I was in most days, but… Rachel always pestered me about my fangirling over Impulse, but I just always thought of… It wasn't healthy. There. I popped a piece of gum in my mouth - a sign that I was seriously stressed out.

My job was to talk Impulse into joining the Team and proving his story. Except that the story we had to prove wasn't exactly true. I sighed and walked to the Zeta-Tubes. The mess with Neutron was over, so Wally was supposed to meet me at the Central City transporter.

"_Recognized: Kinetica B23_." I stepped out to see KF in civvies just like I was.

"Hey, you must be Kinetica."

I shrugged. "Be awkward if I wasn't."

He began talking about what had happened, but I didn't really listen. I knew what occurred, and I really didn't want to hear about it right now. We made our way to the Garrick's and I took a breath before I followed him inside. They everyone was. Barry, Iris, Joan, Jay, Wally. And Impulse was nowhere to be seen.

Barry spoke first. "Well, Nat, what does the Team want?"

"Two things really. A, we need to see whether or not Speed Racer is who he say he is. And I think you guys will want to know that too. B, Nightwing needs to know whether or not he will be joining the Team, and if he will be living at the Cave." They nodded, so I continued. "That means we need DNA of Iris and you, Barry."

Iris was confused. "What about him?"

I knew who she was talking about. "Taken care of. We can do two things. Get it over with tonight or sleep on it, since we all know this's been crazy."

Jay spoke for the first time. "I think it would be best if we got this all over with."

I nodded, but just before I was going to make my exit, Barry ruined it. "It'd also be best if you took Bart to the Cave now, then we'll follow."

I coughed. "Great, where is he?" In a mircosecond Impulse was in front of me, smiling goofily. I took a step back. "That answers my question."

"Hey Kenny."

I glared. "It's_ Nat_."

He just smiled wider and I rolled my eyes. Wally glanced at the two of us. "Do you need help getting back?"

"No, I know the way." I instantly regretted my words. "I'll let you guys, say… whatever." Quickly I walked out of the house, waiting at the end of the street. In a minute or so Impulse ran out, still smiling.

I glared. "Quit it."

"What?"

"Ugh, just c'mon Speed Racer." I tried to take a step a forward, but he stopped me.

"What's Speed Racer?"

I didn't answer. I vaguely heard him talking away, but I couldn't make out most of it. "Kenny are you listening? Cause if you aren't I don't know whe…"

"Stop!" I sat down on the sidewalk, breathing deeply. "Don't call me Kenny, it… just don't."

"Hey, Nat's crash too." He sat next to me. He lifted my arm up, feeling the black stitching along my cuff. "Did you do this? It's totally crash. What does it say?"

"Um, thanks? And we should be gettin' to the Cave." I stood and began jogging to the transporter. I couldn't tell him what it said but I sighed as I looked at it. _Evil Niaga Ynnad_. A wish I have been making for too long, a spell that will never work.

**A/N: Ok this little question is about what you're going to see later on (note we are going to do a sequel that will be a season 3). _ is the supervillain name based on the state of motion in matter and is a clone created by Professor Zoom. Who is he?**


	7. Innocence

**A/N: Sup guys! We own nothing except our OC's, the rest belongs to Warner Bros. But IMPORTANT ANOUNCEMENT! If you guys want to know what some of our characters look like, I'm going to start to post some drawings I've done on my Tumblr. The link is on my profile, and I hope you guys check it out.**

Rachel's POV

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**FEBRUARY 29TH 02:05 EST**

We all stood around the time machine, while Nightwing typed away on the screen. Nat stood next to me, looking at the time machine, probably thinking the same thing I was. This wasn't going to work and we'll be stuck with Bart in the present. I noticed her gaze shifted to the young speedster just across the room.

I nudged her arm. "What's up with you?"

"What?"

Before I could explain, Nightwing finished and turned to all of us. "Impulse's DNA matches up with both Iris and you Barry." He then motioned to the time machine. "And this thing is giving off both zeta and kronatron radiation."

"Which," Nat pointed to it, "in pure theory, is what you expect to find radiating off a time machine."

Barry placed hand on Bart's shoulder. "Which means you're exactly who you say you are."

Bart gave a little laugh. "Told 'ya." Turning so his back faced the machine he smiled. "Well, it's been crash. but the future awaits. I gotta run." I rolled my eyes.

Barry stepped towards his grandson. "Bart, thanks for coming. I look forward to… meeting you again, for the first time, and… watching you grow up."

He smiled a bit. "That, will be crash." He hugged Barry, and I felt my heart grow with the feels. Flash returned it, making even Nat smile a bit. Bart took a step back, getting into the time machine. "So long."

The door shut and a blast of steam came out, but it was still there. Gar swished his tail while he spoke. "Maybe he's traveling forward one second at a time?"

The machine flew open, Bart coming out again. "It's not working! The whole thing's fried." He kicked it in frustration.

I raised an eyebrow, knowing he built part of the thing. "Can't you fix it?"

"I'm a tourist, not a kronal expert. Look at me! I'm trapped in the stupid past!" He facepalmed, then sighed. "I'm so moded."

We all exchanged looks. This was his plan, to come back and stop a Reach apocalypse, but it made me think. Who had he left behind? Will his memories change when we do stop it? Then what? Will he no longer exist? Nat crossed her arms, looking sadly at Bart. This was the first time she had showed anything towards him and when he met her eyes, there was something in them I couldn't make out. What were they thinking?

Nightwing turned to Nat. "Kinetica, you said that when you touch something, it's possible for you to find out how it works."

She nodded slightly. "And you want me to try it on the time machine."

"That would be the idea." She walked over to it and gently touched it. A green light came out from her hand and a few seconds later, she crossed her arms again.

"It's… there isn't anything our tech can do. To fix it… it won't be easy, but there's a slight chance…" She brushed a piece of hair out of her face, then met Bart's eyes. I watched the two of them. "I'm sorry."

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**FEBRUARY 29TH 09:30 EST**

The rest of the night and morning was hazy. We were told we didn't have to go to school because of what happened the night before, but Nat decided to ignore that and took off for school. Apparently she needed a distraction from everything, and I couldn't blame her. But, going to Central City to get away from Central City… I'm not going to delve into that mess.

Wait a second. Why isn't the school closed? Shouldn't school be closed if the city was attacked? I don't even know anymore. I sat at the island in the kitchen, a cup of tea in front of me. Now that Nat wasn't here I could use the TARDIS mug. She can take her dibs and chuck 'em out the window.

"Rachel?" I turned to see Jaime in the doorway. He wasn't in a hoodie today, which was a rarity, but I certainly didn't mind. I mean… uh.

"Hey, Blue." I took a sip of my tea, trying to block out my thoughts. "What are you doin' here?"

He leaned back against the island, making me blush just a bit more. "Day off. What's this I've been hearing about a new team member?"

"His name's Impulse, and he's speedster. Apparently the grandson of the Flash from the future. He's supposed to come here later so the Team can be introduced to 'im."

He nodded. "Not the oddest thing to happen."

"Definitely not." He smiled, which made me grin. He was much more attractive live-action than animation, his eyes… wait what am I saying? "So… are you doing anything exciting?"

Shaking his head, he said, "Not really. How about yourself?"

I slammed down my mug dramatically, sending a bit off it sloshing out, and stood up. "C'mon."

"What?"

I grabbed his wrist with one hand, my tea in the other. "We're going to hang out, since nothing interesting is going to happen."

We marched out, me dragging him behind, him not really resisting.

Yesss.

Nat's POV

**CENTRAL CITY**

**FEBRUARY 29TH 07:21 CST**

Carrie and I sat on the stone wall that bordered the main steps. I decided it would be best not to miss school, so at seven I threw on black leggings, boots, a stitched green tunic sweatshirt thing I found at the mall, and fingerless gloves. Carrie had her hair in her trademark ponytail, with her swim team jacket, and glasses. She usually wore contacts, but with a meet after school, she felt this was easier.

"So, what is up in the world of Nat?"

I shrugged, picking at my phone case. It was red with a splattered yellow smiley face on it. Actually, it was Rachel's, but mine broke, so I used hers. "Just trying to understand how we have school right after the Flash monument area was demolished by Neutron."

She hit my arm. "I know, right? We should have today off at least. What is up with the school board? I mean, do they even watch the news?"

"Exactly."

"Oh! But on the better news, I heard from Sara that we have new kid starting today. Dr. Allen's nephew or something. Her mom was talking to Ms. West-Allen this morning."

I felt all the color leave my face. She had to be joking. He… he couldn't be starting today. That wasn't possible.

She waved her hand in front of my face. "Yo, Nat, are you ok? You look like I said they're serving the chicken salad for lunch today. Are you going to be sick, cause if you are, point towards Pete."

Pete, who happened to be walking up the stairs feigned hurt. "Oh gosh, Car, I thought you really liked me."

She waved him off. "I only don't on any day that ends in y, Petey." He huffed, then walked away. Those two… well, maybe in a few years they'll surprise everyone and become the OTP of the school. I checked my watch.

"Crap, c'mon we have five minutes." It was safe to say we ran to Geometry. If that doesn't wake you up, nothing does. We took our seats just as the bell rang, but… our teacher was nowhere to be seen.

Carrie sighed. "That was a waste."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh whatever." Still our teacher wasn't here, and I was scared a rave was going to start. Next to us, I saw Johnny and Erik beginning to grab something out of their backpacks, but the teacher came in just in time. Yet there was someone following him. Impulse?

That wasn't possible. He was born in the fall, he should be in seventh grade class. Hell, he shouldn't be near this side of the building. Our teacher spoke. "This, class, is Bartholomew Allen, you're new classmate. While he is a grade under you, it was made apparent that he would do best in this class, so treat him like you would your peers."

Impulse looked very uncomfortable. "It's Bart."

"Well, Bart, why don't you take a seat next to Mr. Jackson, and we can get started." This wasn't the start. In fact, it had already begun.

By the time lunch rolled around I was still shocked about Impulse being in my class. Carrie, Sara, Pete, Anya, Brady, and I were at our usual spot outside. I couldn't eat, so I was just fiddling with my phone. "So, Nat, what do you think of new kid?"

Sara leaned across the table, her brown eyes looking at me. "I don't know, fine, I guess. It's not like I talked to him or anything."

Carrie flipped her ponytail back. "Well I did, and he is great. I mean, have you seen his eyes? They are so green."

"Ugh," Brady tossed a grape at Carrie. "We guys so don't need to hear this, Car."

"But we girls do." Anya tapped her pink nails on the table. "So, what's he like?"

"So funny. And he uses this catchphrase 'crash'. I mean, how did he come with that?" I got up, not wanting to hear this anymore. "I'm heading to the lawn, anyone wanna come, or do you want to keep gossiping?"

Carrie swung her bag over her shoulder. "I'll come. See ya guys." We walked down past the concrete to a grass hill known as the "lawn". It was a place you could hang till lunch was over. "So, you don't seem like you like Bart very much."

"And you seem to like him a lot."

"Uh duh." Then her eyes lit up. "Oh, hey Bart."

I didn't turn as I hear him talk. "Hi, Carrie. Who's your friend?"

She brushed me out of the way. "No one special. So, have you thought about trying out for any sports? Track starts next week, and I can totally tell you'd be great."

"Uh, thanks?"

I sighed. She just had to flirt didn't she? I mean, she wasn't doing a good job, but still. I looked at Impulse and for the first time, he caught my eye.

"Nat?" Oh shit.

Rachel's POV

Jaime and I sat on my bed, talking. I noticed just how different the sides of the room were. Mine had pictures, paper, and sheet music stacked in neat order, but Nat's stuff was piled everywhere. I needed to talk to her about that.

I flopped back onto my back. "I'm tellin' you, you did not ever want picture day at Rodeo Elementary. It's like they're taking a mug shot."

He laughed and leaned back on his elbows. "I'm sure you looked fine. Now, you can't ever bring up fourth grade in my house, or else my Ma brings out the yearbook. I had girl hair that year and… let's say people sometimes think I'm Milagro."

"You should take that as a compliment. Nat had short hair and braces, and more or less looked like a little boy. Oh God, never tell her I said that."

"Don't worry. And Rachel?" I giggled a little when he said my name.

"Sup?"

"You said that in your Earth I'm…"

"A cartoon? Yeah."

"Well… I…"

I poked him. "You wanna know what you looked like, don't you?" He shrugged. "Ok. Well, pretty much the same, but, you know, animated and cell shaded."

He raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

I laughed. "What do you want me to say? What I think about your animated self?"

"It would be very helpful." He shifted so his face was just above mine.

My breath staggered. "Maybe another time."

He leaned closer. "Really?"

I bit my lip. "Well, I, uh..."

He smiled. "Another time it is." He leaned closer and closer, damn this was murderous. I reached to put him to me, when the door flew open. We flew apart, me landing hard on the floor, Jaime stumbling and hitting the wall. We both looked to see Gar in the doorway.

"You guys ok? Did I interrupt something?"

Yes, yes you did Gar.

But I chose to be nice. "No, it was nothing." I glanced over at Jaime, who looked very flustered about what happened. Honestly, so was I.

Nat's POV

Carrie pointed back and forth between impulse and me. "Wait, you two… know each other?" She turned to me. "What the hell?!"

"What? You never asked."

Her face was beginning to turn red. "I don't think I needed to ask. You let me think you didn't care that I…"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I don't, Carrie." And that ended that conversation. The rest of the day was awkward to say the least. By the end of the day, I kicked my locker shut and left the school without a word to anyone. Once I was sure I was alone I dropped to the ground.

I hit my fist on the sidewalk. I'm such an idiot. I'm… "Nat?"

I looked up to see Impulse. "What do you want?"

He ran a hand through his hair, then sat down next to me. "Well, I wanted to make sure you were ok, and… what was up with Carrie?"

I jumped. "Wait, what?"

"I mean, not introducing you? What was that about? And then just letting you standing there, so not crash." This took a left hook.

"Wait, where you even paying attention to her?"

"Not really." I grabbed him and pulled him into a hug. It took a couple seconds before he returned it, but I'm sure he was stunned. I haven't exactly shown him a lot of affection. When I pulled away, I say him blush. "Uh, ok?"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." He smiled and I had to smile back. A true genuine smile. Something I haven't done in a long time.

"Thank you, Bart."

"No problem." He stood, then helped me up. "So what does your bag say?"

"Huh?" I swung it off and saw bold letters saying Deal with It. It was obvious what it said. "Can't you read it for yourself?"

He passed it off. "I wanna hear you say it." That was a red flag.

"Holy shit, you can't read."

His eyes widened. "What? I can read!"

I pointed at him. "Fine what does that say?" I pointed to the street sign.

"That's so irrelevant."

My jaw dropped. "You seriously can't read. I mean duh, future and all, but really?"

He looked away. Quickly, I grabbed his hand with mine and pulled him towards the zeta-tube. "Uh, what are you doing?"

I spun on my heel, facing him again. "You, good sir, are going to learn how to read."

**A/N: OK, question time. This one is a little more personal, because we want your feedback. What do you think of our characters and their relationships? Do they seem realistic to you, or is there something we can change? We really want to know what you think, so we can make this story more enjoyable for you!**


	8. Turning Tables

**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER HAS SOME MENTION AND ATTEMPT AT SELF HARM. (please message me if this offends or you dislike this as it's not our intention to make anyone feel bad by doing this).**

**A/N (FE159): Hey peps, ready for chapter 8 with all the sad feels? Remember we don't own anything except our OC's and also, check out my tumblr for some insight into what our characters look like, and special looks at season 3 designs. It's also just nice if you like superheroes since that's all that my tumblr is haha. **

Nat's POV

**PALO ALTO**

**MARCH 18TH 15:24 PDT**

"So why doesn't Rachel like you using a bow?" Artemis Crock slung her bow over her shoulder and began walking through the house.

"Beats me. She can shoot a bow, though, I've seen pictures of her."

"Maybe it's some bad childhood experience."

"Yeah, maybe. She does seem to have a lot of those." I held the bow in my hands. It was a combat bow, the one Artemis used back in season 1. I felt special holding it in my hands, like it could fade away if I didn't treat it properly. "Thanks again for letting me practice here. The Cave isn't exactly the best place for it."

"You're always welcome here. Nelson sure likes you, and in my book, you're ok." I petted Nelson white head as we walked into the backyard. A small target was set up on the fence, and I smiled. It was the same set up as…

"Well thanks, Artemis." Arrows were stuck in a line on the ground. "Let me guess, wherever the arrows are is where I have to shoot?"

She nodded. "That would be the idea." I went to the first arrow and saw a flash in the corner of my eye. Bart was now sitting on the ground next to us, a book in his hand. Howl's Moving Castle. Over the past few days I had been making him practice reading, and he was getting good at it.

"Sup, Speed Racer?"

He waved the book before opening it. Artemis raised her eyebrow, but lifted up her bow. "So, it's pretty simple. Just pull back and release."

"Says the person with a lot of experience." I set up my stance, and notched the arrow. One, two… three. The arrow flew across the yard, flashing a bright green for a second or two, then hitting the target. Bullseye.

Bart looked up. "Telekinesis is cheating, Nat." I stuck my tongue out. He smiled then went back to his book. I saw his eyes scan the page slowly. He read at a normal pace, at least when he was actually reading. Sometimes he just sped through it to get it done.

I sighed. "Whatever." I went again and it hit the ring just outside the bullseye, without my powers helping out.

Artemis cocked her head to one side. "Pretty good," she said. "Just try to do it without feeling you have to prove something."

I smiled.

"Excited to see the space shuttle launch tommorow?" she asked, smiling brightly.

I froze.

She cocked her head again, surveying me playfully. "What, did you forget?"

"No - Artemis - I - I know."

A flash of horror flickered in her eyes, and her eyes flickered to Bart for a second, but she passed it off with an easy, if slightly loud laugh. "Know what? We're going to assist the launch?"

Bart popped up from his book. "Really?! You're assisting the launch?"

"Just making sure nothing goes wrong. And no, you, Nat, Rachel, or anyone else can't help us," she said, shaking her finger at him. "Make sure you watch him," she said, addressing me. "If he's anything like Wally, he'll do anything to escape."

"What about me?" called Wally, leaning against the railing of the back porch.

"Nothing, honey."

"Sure," he said. He shifted his gaze to Bart. "Hey, did you eat all the peanut butter?"

"Yep," said Bart, without looking up.

"Did you use a spoon or make a sandwich?"

"Yep."

Wally rolled his eyes. "I feel so bad for Barry. It must be hell to watch you."

"Hey!"

Rachel's POV

**EL PASO**

**MARCH 19TH 16:34 MDT**

"Of course it'll be no problem to watch Milagro, Mrs. Reyes," I said, spreading my hands and trying really hard not to catch on fire. "It's just for - what, six hours?"

We were standing by the Reyes's open front door. Outside, the sun was setting, bathing the city in rosy red light. Mr. Reyes was in the car, drumming his hands on the dashboard impatiently. Mrs. Reyes was ignoring him. They were going to a let's-watch-the-shuttle-launch party for the evening, which I guess was a rare event.

"Yes, around six hours. Jaime should be getting home around ten, but I'm sure you'll be fine until then, right?" She hefted her purse on her shoulder and smoothed her emerald-green cocktail dress. I wanted her to wear the brown one, which complimented her eyes much better. She had the same eyes as Jaime - a warm brown with flecks of gold in them, much more -

Woah now. I shook my head. Mrs. Reyes studied me curiously.

"I mean, yes. I thought I felt a fly, but maybe it was just my hair. What time does Milagro go to bed?" I said, desperate to change the subject.

"Usually around eight, but you can let her stay up until nine or nine-thirty to let her see the rocket launch. Cookies are in the cabinet above the fridge, she can have one before she goes to bed. " She smiled. "Isn't it going to be great? We'll be able to find out more about the universe as a whole with that satellite."

I forced a smile, the image of the rocket exploding and material raining down across the ocean burned into my mind. "I'd like to meet some aliens. It was always my grandfather's goal."

"You'll have to tell me more when we get back. Around 11, okay?"

"Honey! Let's go! She'll be fine," Mr. Reyes shouted from the car.

"Okay!" she shouted back, then turned back to me. "I knew you'd be fine. Jaime always speaks so highly of you." She waved goodbye to me and shut the door firmly behind her.

I stood frozen for a few seconds, before running into the kitchen and waving from the window overlooking the street. Mr. Reyes waved back, elbowing for a piece of the rear-view mirror Mrs. Reyes was using to adjust her lipstick. I watched the car disappear around the block, then melted onto the countertop, beaming.

He spoke highly of me.

Not just of me. Oh, no. Highly of me. I wondered what he talked. I had been told I could draw and write, but they weren't things I liked to show people. I felt a radical urge to call Mrs. Reyes and ask what aspects of me he spoke highly of, but I shivered and pushed it aside. I would just have to guess, then. I would think more of it between the hours of nine and ten.

I got up and walked to the living room, peeking my head in the door. I just caught sight of a zany cartoon character clubbing another when Milagro hugged my legs. I bent down to hug her from my height, then lifted her up and gave her a piggyback ride.

"What game do you want to play first?"

Nat's POV

"How are you so good at chess?!" I shout, watching Bart tip my king over for the fifth time in a row.

"You're just really, really predictable. Also, I have more time to think. Superspeed and all that." He winked sarcastically.

"Hmph," I said, crossing my arms and looking at a spot on the carpet.

We were sitting on the floor of Bart's bedroom, which, for only having five hour's notice, the Garricks had done a great job converting a spare room into a bedroom. Science posters had been tacked up across the room, simulating wallpaper. A low cabinet containing a cluster of books - some of Rachel's fantasy stories, a few of Jaime's action novels, and a generous collection of Gar's old childhood one-minute books - was against a wall, serving as a nightstand for an air mattress. An old lamp with a sun-faded picture of The Flash on it - no doubt dug from the dark recesses of Wally West's closet - was beginning to take over the roll of the sun, which had almost receded over the horizon.

"Come on, let's go watch -" he lowered his voice and took up a falsetto British accent "- G. Gordon Godfrey ask members of the Justice League sensitive questions about the launch."

I snorted. "I can't stand that guy. Give his job to Cat Grant, at least she tells the truth."

"You've got good taste."

I smirked. "I don't know 'bout that. I do tend to hang out with you a lot."

He scoffed. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

Standing up I levitated the chessboard and pieces back into the box. "I think you know exactly what I mean, Speed Racer. Now…" I swallowed thickly. "Let's go watch the launch." I opened the door, rubbing my wrist carefully. There was a small mirror on the opposite wall of the hallway, allowing me to see myself.

A mane of auburn hair fell around my small round face. Big brown eyes with long lashes, a button nose, and a smattering of freckles made me look like I was a little kid. I mean, sure, thirteen is young by most standards, but with the dark circles under my eyes I looked much younger. Bart appeared next to me.

"Nat, are you ok?"

I turned and smiled. It was forced, but I had practiced enough to make it look realistic. "Yeah, just fine. C'mon." We walked down the stairs to the small living room. Joan and Jay were already sitting on the couch, the TV broadcasting the launch. This wasn't the GBS channel, so we didn't have to stand to listen to G. Gordon Godfrey. Amen to that. I sat down on one of the chairs, Bart taking the seat next to me.

"Ready?"

I brought my knees to my chin, quietly making patterns on my jeans with my finger. "Sure."

Rachel's POV

Milagro and I were sitting on the couch, the TV on. She was braiding small sections of my sandy blonde hair, mostly because it kept her still. She was pretty hyper, but that maybe because she took a cookie or two when I wasn't looking. In the corner of the shot I saw two figures. Nightwing and Artemis. If only I could go there, stop it. Or have gotten to Nightwing first and told him to tell the Team.

But that wouldn't do. Psimon was already a risk, and he could rip information out of anyone's head at any time. And Blue… Blue could slip up after the Beetle - the beetle…

I pressed my lips together, feeling myself slip into a psychological state again, delving into unanswered and impossible questions. Was it better to be able to predict the future, or was it good to take life as it came? Was it really better to sit and wait for these terrible, awful things to happen, or was it better to take things as they came?

"Done!" Milagro let go of my hair and I looked at it using my phone. I had to admit, that girl can sure do a good job.

"Well, don't you look pretty." I spun around to see Jaime standing in the doorway, smirking. Milagro ran to him, hugging him tightly. "Hey, so what did I miss?"

He picked up his sister and sat down next to me. I glanced at the TV. "Nothing much, except your sister is a cookie thief."

"I only took two!"

I poked her stomach. "Shame. You know if you steal, always give something to your partner. So they don't tell."

Jaime smiled. "Remind me never let you and Milagro go out shopping. Who knows what would happen?"

I whacked his arm with the back of my hand. "Not funny." There was a beep from my phone. "Hang on a sec." It was a text from Nat.

You ready? I don't think I can stand to see the Team like that.

I knew what she meant. Quickly I sent a text back. Ik. Just… idk. I really I didn't know what to do. Not reveal anything? I doubt it.

Here comes the psychological state again. What would happen if I told Blue what would happen when the missile blasted off? Would he laugh it off? Could we really shift canon? Nat told me in a moment of weakness she had seen episode 7, told Artemis that she knew their plan. Would Artemis have reconsidered if she knew what would happen to Kaldur? And what if we destroyed the canon series? What if we destroyed the series, revealed every plot twist?

What then?

"What did she want?"

"What?" I saw Jaime looking over my shoulder.

"Nat."

I sighed, shaking my head. "Oh, just asking if I was watching or not. It's about to happen." I wasn't talking about the launch.

I thought about Milagro's parents, watching the television from a neighbor's screen, ready to celebrate the first Earth-Mars communication. I thought about all the other people who, like us, were anxiously staring at the screen, which showed the footage from the front of the rocket, not watching the carnage that was going on behind the scenes. Like everything we did nowadays.

"Right, Millie, sit next to me," I said, sitting between Blue and the empty couch cushion. I clutched the phone to my chest, waiting.

Nat's POV

The rocket launched into the air, everything silent except for its engines. I curled myself tighter. Five, four, three, two… The rocket exploded into a million pieces. "No." I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. All of this shouldn't be happening, we could've stopped it, warned them about the bomb. She didn't have to pretend to die.

Bart's eyes were wide with shock. "Oh my God." My phone rang loudly in the stunned silence. It was Conner. I didn't want to talk to him, but I picked it up anyways.

"I know."

Rachel's POV

I watched the remains of the rocket fall to the ground. Unconciously, tears began to streak down my face, smearing my mascara. Vaguely, I heard Blue comfort Milagro, telling her that there had been a mistake, that it didn't work, that the rocket had to go. I heard him carry her into her room, kiss her goodnight, the gentle click of the lightswitch.

I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, and I fell into them.

"Why are you -" he asked, but the vibrations of his cell phone buried deep in his pockets interrupted him. The phone went to his ear for seven seconds, before it came down, and he looked at me.

"You knew?" he whispered. "You knew she would die?"

"N-Nothing I-I-I c-c-ould-" I couldn't get the words out. I buried my face into his sweatshirt, praying he would understand.

Would he think highly of me now?

Nat's POV

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**MARCH 20TH 3:58 EDT**

Bart and I ran through the Zeta-Tube, seconds before Rachel and Jaime came through. I ran to my best friend and held onto her. She was like my big sister, and that meant she needed to comfort me. Conner explained about Artemis, and I felt like kicking myself. I could've stopped it.

"Nat, it's ok." Rachel hugged me back for a moment, then pushed me away, looking beyond me. "Where's everyone?"

I turned and saw Nightwing, a scowl on his face. He noticed us and nodded. "The kitchen." The computer sounded off his name and he was gone. I wanted to yell at him, but it wasn't going to happen. I couldn't make anything come out.

Rachel coughed. "Let's go." We walked to the kitchen and saw everyone. Guilt filled me, making me stop in the doorway. I couldn't… I couldn't face them. I turned and ran, tears running down my face. I should've stopped this.

Falling to the ground I rubbed my wrists. I told myself I wouldn't do it again. But it was like I didn't have control over my body as I pulled a tape-covered object from my boot. Taking the tape off I saw the sheen of the razor blade. A tear ran down my cheek as I stared at it, readying myself.

Rachel's POV

Nat ran out. "Nat!" I tried to follow her, but she was gone. Damn it! I felt a hand on my shoulder. Bart stood next to me. He was a little shorter than I was, which made it easier for me to wrap my arms around him. "It's ok."

He made no move to pull away. "She… she knew, didn't she? You both did."

I nodded, feeling tears pool in the bottom of my eyes. "Yeah."

"But you didn't tell anyone. You couldn't tell anyone."

"I guess so."

He backed up, brushing a small tear from his face. "I'm gonna go find her." He sped off, and I was alone again. In a fit of rage I punch the wall, setting a small part of it on fire. The fire died instantly, but it focused my mind. I walked back into the kitchen, and saw Jaime. A small grimace appeared when he saw me.

He must hate me. I didn't explain anything, I lied to him. I opened my mouth to try and get the words out, but he pulled me into a hug. Kissing my forehead, he held my face in his hands. I held onto his hoodie. "Rachel…"

"I'm sorry. I-I-I'm so sorry, Jaime. It-it's my- I'm sorry." He brushed a piece of my hair back.

"It's ok. You did what you felt was right." I smiled weakly.

"Yeah, but I guess I…" He gently smiled back.

"I'm sorry too."

Nat's POV

I twirled the razor blade between my fingers as I stood over the sink. Slowly, I put it down and took off my sweater, so I was in my tank top. The thin scars were even lighter than my already pale skin. I sighed.

I hadn't done this in months, years maybe. It was easier after I found Rachel again, but sometimes - after a hard day at school, a fight with my parents - I just… had to do it...

Taking the blade in my hand again, I stared at it. A small D was etched into the metal, making me miss a beat. Danny…

"Nat?" The blade dropped out of my hand, clattering to the ground with a metallic ring. I saw Bart in the mirror, standing shocked in the doorway. Turning, I ran to him, sobbing into his shirt.

"I didn't do it. I didn't do anything."

He wrapped his arms carefully around me. "Why?"

I took a step back, trying to wipe away smeared mascara. "I… I knew. I know she… Artemis. I knew what was going to happen to her. And I didn't tell anyone. I feel so guilty…"

He gently grabbed one of my wrists. "So you felt the need to cut yourself."

I swallowed. "I-I don't want to. I never do, it just… distracts me from the emotions. It's my… God!" I slumped to the ground. "I'm an idiot."

He kneeled next to me. "No you aren't. You're sarcastic, bossy, and sometimes a bit rude. But you aren't an idiot. And you can't punish yourself for feeling the way you do."

I smirked. "Wow, I didn't think you could be that deep, Speed Racer. Who knew you had it in 'ya?"

"Well… I did."

I weakly hit him in the arm. "You're a dweeb."

He rolled his eyes. "Gee thanks." He moved to grab the razor blade and quickly threw it in the trash. Then he held his hand out. "Well?"

I took it and let him help me up. "Don't tell anyone what just happened."

"What?"

I pulled my sweater back on. "You're kinda the only one that knows. I… it isn't something you share."

"What about Rachel? She's like your best friend."

I walked out to my bed, looking at the picture I printed out of Rachel and I. Crossing my arms, I glanced back at Speed Racer. "Just 'cause you're friends with someone, don't mean they know everythin'."

Rachel's POV

After a while Nat and Bart came back. I shook her. "What the hell was that disappearing act? You know how paranoid that makes me?"

In a monotone voice she said, "Could you stop?" When I did, she continued. "I don't know."

"You don't know? What, were you feeling guilty, upset? Because I'm feeling that way too, but I didn't run off."

"Hey, leave her alone!" Bart stood tall next to her (which wasn't saying much). I looked back and forth between them. What exactly happened there?

"I'm allowed to interrogate her, it's part of my job. Nat, are you ok?" She nodded slightly, running her hand along her wrist. She tended to do that a lot, but she never told me why. She always changed the subject, or said she had to leave. Then again, I played with my fingernails. I guess we all have our quirks.

"I'm fine, Rach. Just… emotionally drained, I guess. I'm sure everyone is."

"Well… yeah, you're right. But next time, don't make me spazz out. It isn't good for my health, kiddo."

She glared. "Don't call me kiddo."

"I'm a year and a half older than you. I can call you whatever I want." I poked her nose, which she scrunched up in annoyance. "There's the Nat I've learned to put up with."

"Love you too, Hothead."

I shrugged. "Could do without the sarcasm, but I'll take it."

Jaime came up to us. "Everyone's staying here tonight because of what happened."

Bart took a step closer to Nat. "Everyone's moded, 'course they're gonna stay at the Cave where it's safe."

Shifting her weight, Nat nodded. "Right. They're aren't enough rooms for everyone though."

I snapped my fingers at an idea. "Well Cass and Babs can bunk with us, right?" Nat brushed her hair back.

"Sure. Sounds great. I'll go- go tell them." She looked to Bart. "Comin'?"

"Yeah." They walked off, his hand touching hers once, but she didn't seem to respond. What the…? Gosh, it was just like when Nat came back from Pittsburgh. All detached and sad. What was she not telling me? Well, it's time for Rachel Pate, master sleuth, to find out.

**A/N (FE159): Sup guys? Guess what? My co-writer is actually here! Meet Eduardo Ramos kiddies! She's gonna give you the trivia question of the week!**

**A/N (Ed): Hey guys! Like the sad chapter? It felt good to get all my leftover feelings of mourning over the death of summer out, plus Nat was feeling shitty this week, so let's give the girl some love! Anyway, I am personally feeling a little uninspired, so if you think of a song - any genre at all, instrumental, rock, pop, whatever - when you think of Phoenix or Kinetica, please let us know in the reviews! We love your feedback and we love music, so win-win!**

**Thanks again! Update next Saturday! Yay! Excessive exclamation points!**


	9. Just So You Know

**A/N: Hey guys remember, we don't own anything except our OC's. And we want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH, because of you guys we reached 1000 views on this story! I'm so glad you guys like it so much to make this happen.**

Rachel's POV

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**MARCH 21 09:15 EST**

"Watcha lookin' at?" Nat whipped her head around and yelped. I was leaning over her shoulder, trying to make out what was on her phone screen. Detective Pate was operating on the sly, but I couldn't resist. She put her phone down - screen down sadly - and glared at me.

"Can I help you?"

"Yeah, you can. What were you doing?"

She rolled her eyes. "In case you forgot there's a lot of stuff going on today. First, it's Rocket's bridal shower, remember? Plus it's Conner's birthday and…"

I sat down next to her. "And…?"

"Why are you sudden - shit, please tell me you ain't in Sherlock mode again." I smiled wickedly. She quickly stood up, grabbing a bag. "I hate you so much. Look, I have to go pick up something in town. Do you wanna come, or stay here being all weird?"

"I'll stay here. Being weird is a specialty of mine in case you haven't noticed."

Rolling her eyes she opened the door. "Whatever." Then she was gone. I dove for her phone - which she left on her nightstand. It was locked, but her password was the same for everything. I typed it in and bingo!

"Well, what about that? Nat you little sneak." Texts from Bart, talking about… meeting up? Oh hell yes.

"Hey Rachel, next time you look at my texts… you might wanna check the date." Nat snatched the phone from my hands, looking very smug. "They were from a week ago. In case you cared, I was in the process of deleting my texts when you bombarded me."

"What?"

"Now are you coming or not?" She tossed me a red hoodie before fixing her hair into a clip.

"Pssh, fine. Not like I had anything better to do anyways."

"Exactly."

We walked passed the Zeta-Tubes and into the garage. I saw her sigh, then handed me a set of keys. "Please, Rach, don't make me regret this."

I grabbed them. I had my learner's permit, so sometimes Nat rode in the backseat when my mom and I drove. She was always saying how life-threatening it was for me to drive, but I didn't know what she was talking about. I was a great driver. Most of the time.

"You won't, dude. Now where are we going?"

"The grocery store. Now go easy on the - oh, god!"

Nat's POV

I swear Rachel's going to kill me one of these days. We flew out of the Cave, skidding around the corner. She had no idea of speed, or fear apparently. This ride included the usual sharp turns, muttering at squirrels and pedestrians, frequent curses as she scrabbled for the wheel, and, of course, me almost hurling out the window. Oh sweet Moses, I felt myself turning green.

Finally we were at the grocer's, so once the car stopped I lept out and bent over. "Holy Mother, Rach."

She jingled the keys, looking proud of herself. "That was fun."

I scoffed, but didn't say anything. It was too early to get in an argument. We went into the store, and I stood on my tip-toes so I could see over the bakery counter. " 'Scuse me?"

A older woman smiled down at me. "Yes, young lady? What can I do for you?"

I pulled out my order form. "I'm here to pick up an order for Hartly. It's supposed to be done today."

She took it and nodded. "Of course, I'll be right back."

Rachel poked me. "What the heck is that about?"

I rubbed my arm. "It's for Conner." Since Artemis's death, I had been talking more and more with Conner. It was nice to hear all about the stories the show never gave away. So, I thought, I'd be nice on his birthday.

"Cool."

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing. How many candles are you gonna put on?"

"Six."

She poked my nose. "Clever."

My mouth flattened into a straight line. "Shut up." Suddenly the lady was back, and I grabbed the box from her hand. "Thanks." It was one of those big cupcakes with an S-shield on it in red icing.

"So what's the deal with Connor and M'Gann? Like I know what happened, mostly, but like - any big details I'm missing over here?"

I cast her a dramatic look, then rolled my eyes and put the lemon she was juggling back on its table. "Sometimes I really hate your Sherlock mode."

"Oh, well pardon me while I go fall spread-eagle off a building. Come on, spill."

"Well, it's not much more, to be honest. Before now they've been almost too busy with routine missions stopping generic evil -"

"Generic evil?"

"Like petty crimes, general disruption, etc. Anyway, with all that going on, it's been pretty hard for them to talk about - well - and that's why it's taken five years. Miss Martian's imprisonment is one of the first times she actually gets to think, you know?"

"Hm."

"What?"

"Nothing, just hm,"

"No, what?"

"God, it's just hm - like an expression of yes only with less enthusiasm."

"Dumb."

"Oh, shut up. So what was this 'meeting' with Bart about, anyway?"

"It was just a reading session. We'll be having a lot of those, too, so you can keep your conspiracy theories to yourself, thank you very much. Please try to go easy on the ride home. I don't want the cake to fall victim to your wrath."

She waved it off. "What wrath?"

I pointed at her. "You yelled at a squirrel for being fat."

She groaned in annoyance. "Seriously! He was all obese and rude and wouldn't get off the road! And I sure as hell didn't want chubby rodent intestines all over the car."

I raised an eyebrow. "Chubby rodent intestines?"

"Oh just shut up and pay for your stupid cupcake."

"A, I'm the only person who can say shut up; b, you have no power over me; and c, it's Conner's cupcake, not mine, and you shouldn't call it stupid."

"Who else is celebrating with you?"

"No one. Well, I mean, you can if you want." I looked at her hopefully, but she glanced at a suspicious brown stain on the floor.

"I'm, uh, busy today, actually," she said, cracking her knuckles. "With some stuff."

"Rachel…"

"Did you pay for the cake yet-"

"Rachel! Spill!"

"Spill? Spill what? I don't have anything to spill, anything at all! Unless you mean my Coke, which I'm not done with yet, so that would be wasteful. Now get in the car, unless you want the icing to melt off and - well - spill."

I thought for a minute as Rachel started the truck, then smiled.

"It's Blue, isn't it?"

Rachel threw the truck in reverse, throwing my head forward into the back of the driver's seat. I pulled away, rubbing my nose.

"Ouch!"

"That's what I thought," said Rachel, smiling.

Rachel's POV

No!

No no no no no!

I lay on my bed, pressing the base of my palms into my eyes. Damnit, I was supposed to be Sherlock here, not Nat! And I still had no idea what was going on with her and Bart. Argh!

And then there was the pressing issue that Blue had asked me to hang out with him and I had no idea what to do…

I sat up, taking my hands away from my eyes. The faint black trails on each of them told me my mascara had run off. I was really bad at that. I couldn't look like a raccoon all the time. I walked into the bathroom and wiped the smudged mascara off my eyes. I needed to remind myself to get better make-up. Once I was done I sighed and fell back onto my bed.

Suddenly, my phone started vibrating and ringing. Without looking at who it was I answered it. "What?"

"Hello to you too." Jaime's voice came through, and I tried to sound less annoyed.

Play it cool. Don't be dumb.

"Hey, Jaime. What's up?"

"Are you free, maybe? Because I was kind of thinking that we could-"

"Yes." No! I was supposed to act like I had something else going on, but I could just fit him in. Not desperate and completely willing to do whatever he wanted!

I could tell he was smiling. "Great!"

Huh. Well, never mind then.

"Yeah, I'll be over in a bit."

"Awesome. I'll see you then."

"Bye Jaime." I clicked off my phone and groaned. I was woefully unprepared around guys. Call me a romantic, but it's true. It was like I couldn't even talk to Jaime anymore without saying something stupid. Nat had argued that Jaime was acting flustered too, but… I didn't see it.

I decided I would have to do something drastic. I would just completely forget about Jaime - well, not him, per say - just the idea of him being something more than a friend. Yes.

Operation Amnesia was about to go into effect.

I pulled my hair back into a headband - a nice fiery red one like those that I usually wore with my suit - and adjusted my mascara. Would it be weird to dress up? I didn't know. I pulled on a fluffy cashmere sweater over my tank top, smoothed my jeans, and went into the kitchen.

Nightwing (I refused to call him Dick) stood at the fridge, swirling a glass of water in his hand. I coughed. "So, where is everybody?"

He looked at me, his brow furrowed. "The Grotto." He went back to his thinking. Was he thinking about the plan? Or Artemis and Kaldur?

I cleared my throat again. "Uh, well, thanks. But, um, Nightwing… are you ok?"

He nodded. "Sure."

I glanced away and hurried out of the kitchen. Well that wasn't awkward in the least. I then saw Nat and Conner. "Hey!" I ran over, skidding to a stop just in front of them. "You guys might not wanna go in the kitchen for a bit."

"Di… Nightwing's depressed?" Nat crossed her arms, eyes flashing a dull hazel. Her eyes have been changing with her emotions now. Brown when she's calm, green when angry, etc. Now I'm guessing she's mixed.

"Uh, just a bit. So, I hear it's someone's birthday. So, happy b-day, Conner."

He nodded. "Thanks."

"Ooh, and how do you feel about surprise parties?" Nat's eyes burned a violent green and I felt something hit me in the back of my head. "What the hell?"

She feigned shock. "Oh, Rachel, are you ok? I just wasn't paying attention." I noticed a candle lying on the ground. How ironic.

"Just peachy." I rubbed the back of my head. Damn, that hurt. "I'm going down to the Grotto."

Nat's POV

I watched Rachel high-tail it to the Grotto, but I'm glad I got that shot in. In fact, I wished I had done it a long time ago. I mean, why did she have to ruin everything? Conner turned to me, raising an eyebrow. "What about a surprise party?"

I pulled out the cupcake from my bag. "Happy sixth birthday." I smiled, probably a little stupidly, but he smiled back.

"Thanks. You didn't have to…"

"Yes I did. Everyone needs - needs something special on their birthday." Except me apparently.

"Well, thanks Nat."

"No problemo, Conner." We walked down to the kitchen, now finding it abandoned. Poor Dick. I hopped up onto the island, but Conner stayed standing. "But I have a question. Why did you keep the name Conner?"

"What?"

I shurgged. "I mean, Miss M gave you the name, you when you two… ya know. I was just wondering why you didn't choose something else."

"What would I've picked? Just Kent?"

"Well, in my Earth's comic books, you had a Kryptonian name. Kon-El? So, you always used Kon. Kinda like a nickname for Conner."

"Kon…" He thought about it. "It sort of fits."

"I mean, don't consider changing if you don't want to. Believe me, you should do what you want."

"No, I like it." I smiled.

"Really? Cool. Well, how does it feel being six, Kon?"

He put the cupcake on the plate. "Just how it felt to be five."

"Well, I'll ask you in a couple months. Maybe your answer will change."

"Maybe."

Rachel's POV

**EL PASO**

**MARCH 21 15:27 MDT**

I had met up with Jaime, and we zeta-ed to his house. Somewhere along the way he had begun to hold my hand and goddamn it, my plan wasn't working. How hard was it to not try and like the guy you've been crushing on in secret since he was just a cartoon character? Very hard apparently.

Slowly, I pulled my hand away, and crossed my arms. Ok, Operation Amnesia will start… now. We walked up to his house, only to find Impulse already there. He sped around us and I smiled devilishly. Sherlock can still happen. "Hey guys, what's up?"

I waved. "Hey, Bart, I have a question for you."

"Sure, what is it?"

"What's up between you and Nat?"

He grinned. "Nat? Oh well, we're friends ya know? Oh and what's her favorite color?"

"Purple. And how about -"

He cut me off, sitting down with a notebook and pencil. "Well, how about favorite animal, flower, movie?"

I thought about it. "Snow leopard, she hates real flowers, but faux chrysanthemums were always in her room, and I think it was Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back." Jaime was laughing under his breath. "What are you…" Then it hit me. The notes, the questions about Nat. Holy shit. I whirled around to face Impulse. "WHAT THE HELL?"

Nat's POV

I laughed as I helped Kon up. Gar had charged in in tiger form, toppling us both over and flinging the cupcake to the ground. Gar was on the ground laughing hysterically. "Are you ok?"

Superboy nodded. "Yeah, skin of steel."

I kicked Gar lightly, but he hopped up, causing me to stumble back. Glaring, I huffed. "You, Garfield Logan, are a butt."

He swished his tail back and forth. "Thanks, Nat."

I mussed up his hair. "No problem, BB. Consider it the closest thing to a compliment you'll get from me."

I felt his tail wack my leg. "Uh huh, sure."

Laughing I blew a raspberry on his cheek. "Yup." He giggled and I hugged him. He was kind of like a little brother, even though he was only a few months younger than me. He was a lot like…

"Hey, Nat, you wanna go do something?" I met his big green eyes.

"Not now, Gar. I have to go do homework, but maybe later." I jogged down to my room, closing the door quietly. I grabbed my bag - the one I brought with me to Earth-16. I dumped the contents onto my unmade bed.

Two lip balms, a wad of cash, some sheet paper with scribblings across them, my old knit beanie, my student ID, and three pictures. One was me and my parents. The other, my whole family together - all four of us. And the last one was him. Danny. His hazel eyes were bright in the picture, blonde hair cut neatly, freckles dark against his tan skin, and a tooth missing.

"Danny…" I brushed over the picture with my thumb.

Unknown POV

I don't know how long I've been here. I just know the pain of the tests, the unearthly noise of my captors. Their silhouettes hung over my pod, clicking and chirping. I had learned the faces of the four other teens next to me, but I could never find out more. I tried to stay strong as I felt the shocks begin.

I had to shock get out shock of here. SHOCK. I lurched forward in pain. A shadow passed over me, and I saw the symbol across the chest. No… a gas filled my pod and I saw a pair of greenish-gold eyes just before the effects of the gas overcame me.

Rachel's POV

I pointed at Bart, my mouth open in shock. "What the… how the… Shit! You little devil!"

He held his hand up, giving me the chance to grab the notebook. In rough writing I saw questions about Nat's interests and favorites. I grinned. Well how 'bout that? He likes her. I handed it back to him. "Well, you want to know all about Nat, huh? Why?"

"Well, I… she's crash, you know? And pretty."

I squealed with glee. "You like Nat! Oh my God!"

He blushed a deep scarlet. "Maybe."

"I'm going to help."

Jaime raised an eyebrow. "What?"

I hit his arm. "I'm going to help Bart get Nat. And I know just how to do it."

"Really?"

"Hell no! But I can certainly come up with something. So let's get crackin' on some of those questions huh?"

Jaime waved this off. "Wait a second, you're going to help him with whatever the heck is going on with those you, but you…"

I huffed, knowing what he was going to say. "I don't see how that is relevant right now."

"Well I can, so -"

"No."

"Fine."

"Great."

**A/N: Ok, so this chapter was obviously wasn't as deep as the previous one. But here's a question, do you guys want to read more of jaded Nat? And how about her backstory, since I'm kinda itching to write it, but I wanna know what you guys think.**


	10. Shattered

**A/N (FE159): Hey guys, do you think this has been going on long enough to stop with the disclaimer? Eh I'll do it again. We don't own anything except our OC's. And DOUBLE FEATURE this week. Since this was a really long chapter, chapter 10 is purely Nat and then chapter 11 is purely Rachel. Enjoy you guys.**

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**MARCH 27 14:05 EST**

I flopped down next to Bart, huffing. This day wasn't going well, especially the last hour. It involved being yelled at by Nightwing and having to watch the search for Kaldur commence. It was too painful to see and not tell them everything.

I sighed heavily, bringing my knees up so they nearly touched my nose. I pulled my ponytail over my shoulder, fingering it carefully. Bart touched my shoulder, causing me to look at him. "You ok?"

Waving him off, I nodded. "Just peachy." Standing up again, I began to pace, just to blow off steam. "I mean why wouldn't be alright? My best friend is going on a big solo mission, and I get yelled at for suggesting I could do the same. The downside of being thriteen. You don't get to do nothin'."

"Hey." I stopped, putting my hands on my wide hips. Then, feeling self-conscious like I always do, crossed them instead.

"What?"

Bart stood up. "Are you sure you're ok?" I wanted to tell him the truth. I sure as hell wasn't ok. I was having nightmares, and that was making me sick. I couldn't not think about Danny nowadays and I don't know why. I just nodded, trying not to let him see how much I was actually in pain.

"I told you, I'm fine. Just… annoyed."

He pointed to the spot next to him. "Nat sit down."

I did and noticed him looking at me funny. "What?"

He held his hands up in surrender. "Nothing."

_I squinted up at the fiery sun, blinded from the rapid shift in light. It was the summertime, and I was out of school. It was a warm day in the Pittsburgh suburbs, and I ran home from my friend's house next door. As I opened the door, though, I heard the yelling, the crashing of plates to the ground. My parents fought more and more frequently since he was gone._

_I couldn't make out what they were screaming about just the name. "Danny." It was always Danny. Boxes full of our things were scattered across the hallway, but I found myself in front of his room. I pushed the heavy door open, and saw all of his things. Superhero posters, action figures, and comic books. I was never into any of this stuff, but he loved it._

_It was fall, the leaves crunching under our feet. I was nine, running around in my Thundercats t-shirt, raising a stick above my head. "You can nevah hope to defeat me, Robin."_

_Danny was seven, his sandy blonde hair an unruly mess, hazel eyes wide. He was wearing his Robin cape from Halloween, and had forced me to play Superheroes with him again. "I will, Harley Quinn. And then I'm sending you back to Arkham!"_

_I laughed crazily, swinging the stick around. "Oh really, puddin'? You an' what army?"_

_I heard a gruff voice say. "Me." I turned and saw my dad wearing a Batman mask. He picked me up and I giggled._

_I was reading under the shade of the tree, at least until my adopted brother hovered over me. "Talia come play with me."_

_"No."_

_He tugged on my arm. "Aw c'mon please? You've been reading all day! Let's go play Superheroes. I need a Kid Flash."_

_"Ask Tommy." He was one of our neighbors and was a year or so younger than Danny._

_"No, he's not home. Please!"_

_I put my book down and stood up, taking out my goggles. They were big on my ten-year-old face, but I still looked nifty. "Fine. But first you need to go find Batman so he can give us our mission."_

_His little face lit up. "OK! I'll be right back!" He ran off, and I followed behind him slowly. I don't know why he had such a fascination with superheroes. But as he got to the front lawn, it didn't really matter. Coming from a bad orphanage, it was just nice to see him smile about something._

_"Hey, don't go in the road!" But he still did._

_"You ain't the boss of me!" I trudged after him, and that's when I heard the screech. It was something I would never forget. I saw the sleek black car speeding down the usually deserted road, right to Danny._

_"DANNY!" He turned to look at me. All I saw was his smiling hazel eyes before the car hit him._

_It didn't even stop as Danny landed on the ground with a sickening thump. I screamed so loud my throat hurt, my whole body shaking uncontrollably. He wasn't moving._

_Daddy ran outside and saw the scene. Danny bleeding and unmoving on the street, the ghost of a smile still on his face, and me - shaking and screaming._

_He picked me up then rushed over to Danny. Taking out his phone he dialed 9-1-1. "Please help. My - my son's been hit by a car. He's bleeding heavily."_

_"Da-addy. It-it's all… m-m-my fault."_

I woke up in a cold sweat, screaming. I flung my blankets off and ran my hands through my sweaty hair. I was shaking, something I hadn't done since coming to Earth-16. I warily grabbed my bag, pulling out two prescription bottles from a zippered part. Taking a pill out of each I swallowed them. Eventually the shaking subsided, and I was alone.

Still dazed, I changed into something not drenched in cold sweat, then tied my hair into a messy bun before going to the kitchen. I took a cookie out of the microwave and sat near the island. It was always about him, every night. But this was the first time I saw him…

"Nat?" I spun around to see Bart, rubbing sleep-filled eyes. I had forgotten he was staying at the Cave tonight. He flicked on a light and his jaw dropped. "Nat, what the heck happened?"

I looked in the glass of the microwave and saw myself for the first time. My lip was bleeding, probably from biting it in my sleep, dark circle making me look underweight. I was still vibrating a bit, and in my tank top and short, he could see the goosebumps on my skin. "I…"

Tears started falling, and I put my head in my hands. Crying, sobbing, whatever the hell I was doing, it was just pain radiating from my core. I felt him wrap his arms around me, gently holding me. I cried more. "Nat, tell me what happened."

I shook my head. I promised I would never tell anyone what happened in Pittsburgh, and never about Danny. But as he comforted me, I was seriously considering changing that promise.

Bart gently ran his fingers through my hair. "Nat, you can tell me."

I shook my head. "No, n-n-no I c-can't."

He hugged me. "Yeah, you can."

"Jus-st-t. Don't t-tell Rachel." I took a deep breath, and my shaking subsided. "She can't know."

"Okay."

"I've been having nightmares. Bad ones. I… c'mon." I hopped up and drag him down to my room.

"What are you doing?"

"Sit." I grabbed my bag and pulled out the photographs. Then I sat down cross-legged in front of him. "When I was six, me and my family moved to Pittsburgh, 'cause my mom got relocated. There we… we adopted a kid named Danny." I handed him the picture. "Danny was really obsessed with superheroes, but when he was seven… it was my fault."

"What was?"

"I wanted him to go play by himself, so I told him to go find Batman and he ended up… he got hit by a car. He d-d-died all because I didn't wanna play with him."

"It wasn't your fault."

I pushed him away, maybe a little too roughly. But at this point, I didn't care. "No! I could've stopped it. I-I could've…"

"Nat! Calm down!" I looked at him, shocked, and everything, including him, seemed to drop a good foot.

"Shit, Bart are you… are you ok?" I helped him up, feeling guilty as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Oh, yeah, just so crash."

"I guess I deserve the sarcasm." I gently turned his head to the side, examining the bruise forming there. "I'm so sorry. I guess I… I'm sorry."

He smiled a bit. "You were freakin' out."

I wiped away my final tears. Seeing everything fall, it made my emotions fall as well. It was just like how my mom stopped my freak-outs. She shifted something and I was focused on fixing that instead of whatever I was sad about. "Yeah. I- I don't exactly have the best mix of stuff in me."

He looked at me curiously. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm OCD, I over-think stuff, I can't express how I feel around others-"

"But being OCD and over-thinking stuff isn't a bad thing especially when you're a superhero, and you told me how you feel, didn't you?" He cocked his head to the side like a puppy. Dear god, have mercy.

"Well, yeah, but - I - I don't-"

"Look," he said, holding up his hands. "I won't pry anymore, okay?

I blinked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Well, thank you. But- I guess I told you 'cause it… Damn it sucks holding in all your feelings for a long time." I laughed a little. "I mean, it's just-"

"I know."

"And I know you know, Speed Racer."

He smiled and poked my arm. "Hey, you - you like Kit Kats, right?"

"Yes," I said automatically. "Wait - how did you know that?"

"It's really easy to get information out of Rachel," he said teasingly.

"You didn't ask her did you?" He looked away. "Oh my God! You asked her stuff about me? You're either insane-"

"LookI'msorry,youcanbemadorwhatever."

I hugged him. "You didn't let me finish. I was going to day you're either insane, or really sweet."

He blushed. "I kinda wanna go with sweet."

"So do I." He sped off and back, now holding two Kit-Kats in his hand. "Did you find those under my bed?"

He rolled his eyes. "What? No, why would you think that?"

"Because apparently you know everything, and Rachel would obviously tell where my secret stash of candy was." I took one anyways and looked at the clock. "Damn it's only one in the morning, how great is that?"

"I'm gonna guess that's sarcasm."

"And you would guess correctly."

"Good." He swung around and began to walk to the door. Suddenly all the possibilities of the nightmares crashed down on me and I felt the fear seeping in. I grabbed Bart's wrist.

"Um…" What was I going to say? I'm afraid of the painful memories of my life that I just spilled to you? I let go and waved him away. "Nevermind." Making my way down to the room I felt the darkness closing in. As I touched the doorknob I sensed something wrong in my room. I nearly kicked the door down to get in, only to find Bart… sitting on my bed.

"Hey."

"Uh, what're you-you're on my b-bed-d. Yo-ou-u, s-shouldn't be on m-my bed."

He moved instantly. "Sorry."

I shook my head. "No, it's fine. I… what're you doing?"

"I can tell when you look scared."

"So-"

"Maybe it was a bad…"

"No!" The word came out abrupt, loud even. I covered my mouth with my hands. "I mean, you don't have to, if you really don't want to." And that's apparently how we ended up.

He sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the far wall, and I lay on the very far side, not wanting to need him, but not ready to be left alone to the nightmares again. As I found myself craving his presence, however, I curled up to him, my cheek pressing against the outside of his thigh, his hand running through my hair. He kept the nightmares away, just like on those nights when he was only a comic book character.

**A/N (FE159): Ok, this week is gonna we a contest that'll go on for a while. I'll also post it on my Tumblr and FF profile. So, we're looking for a new cover to our story, since the one was have now is crappy Photoshopped stuff. If any of you can draw, use Photoshop, or anything, we want you to make us a cover. The winner, of course, will be on the cover and can have an OC in one of the chapters if you want. GOOD LUCK.**


	11. The Phoenix

**A/N (FE159): Hey guys, here's the other half of this double feature we're doing. And what did you guys this of that Nat chapter? Pretty deep huh?**

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**MARCH 27 09:14 EST**

"Hey, Rachel, are you-"

I flung myself down on the bed face-first, obscuring my naked torso from whoever stupidly opened the door while I was changing. Argh, Natalia-

"Goddamnit, Nat, it's been three -"

"_Mi Dios_, Rachel, _¡perdón_!" said someone - definitely not female.

"Just go, wait out-"

The door slammed.

"-side," I finished, and let out a sigh.

I stood up warily, glancing at the door, then wrestled into the arms of my red bodysuit. To be completely honest, I didn't feel nearly as awkward as I thought I would have wearing it. Nat had done a good job making it conceal the...uh...important bits. The chestplate helped fix that problem, too. I slid it on, along with the golden boots and headband, then switched to stealth mode.

I looked at myself in the mirror. To be honest, I liked the black and red a lot more than scarlet and gold, but hey, firebirds aren't really known for their gothic clothing choices.

I cautiously opened the door and saw Blue blushing furiously. "Um, hi."

He glanced away then to me, then away again. Running a hand through his hair he met my eyes. "Why're you suited up?"

I looked down at my costume. "Nightwing has a mission for me. First solo thing and all that. I should be back in a couple days. By the 29th." I felt something nagging me at the back of my mind, but I couldn't place it. "Hey, do you know anyone else who can speak Spanish?

"No, but… hey, was that Nightwing?"

Oh, no. To say this was awkward is a major understatement. "Uh, I don't know, I'll go check," I said, shrugging and looking behind me, praying I would stop blushing. Operation Amnesia, I thought fiercely.

"I'll see you when you get back."

I nodded. "I should say bye to Nat, then… head off." We stood there awkwardly and I walked off, feeling very uncomfortable. I wished this suit had pockets, I hadn't ever figured out what to do with my hands. I was heading to Bialya, to investigate Queen Bee's activities with the Light and the Reach. As I passed by the living room I saw Nat and Bart sitting on the couch, looking very cozy. I smiled and walked in.

I was trying to sneak up on them, so not to ruin that moment, but Nat suddenly said, "Sup Hothead?"

I stomped my foot in frustration. "Ugh, how do you do that?"

She shrugged, and opened her book. "You leaving now?"

"Well obviously."

"Bye." She wasn't looking at me, and it didn't seem like she was going to turn anytime soon. "Oh, and remember, radio silence."

I patted her head. "Sure, whatever you say." I pointed to Bart. "And you. Make sure she doesn't get into trouble while I'm gone."

Nat stood up, facing me for the first time. She seemed thinner in the face today, dark circles under her eyes. She hugged me quickly. "See ya, Rach."

"Same to you, Nat."

**BIALYA**

**MARCH 27 20:20 UTC**

I landed on the rough sand in the Bialyian desert - a fair distance from Queen Bee's palace, unfortunately. My flames died so I was back to normal again. As I jogged towards a sand dune large enough to conceal me, I reviewed the plan in my head. Again.

I was ordered to keep tabs on Queen Bee and her men by planting trackers in the air vents and onto little-used palace walls and furniture. The things were smaller than a key on a cell phone, and put out a signal roughly the same size, so anyone scanning the area would just assume that soldiers were making calls on their cell phones. Like, constantly, for the next forty-eight days. Admittedly, there were some flaws, but I wasn't going to question it.

I peered over the edge of the sand dune. A cluster of soldiers stood by the front gate, letting in military trucks, and a pair marched around the inside of the barb-wire fence. A gate was built into the fence, opened by what I recognized to be a card system. If I could convince the guards to run outside, would I have to hurdle the fence…?

I crawled over to the right spot and got ready. I had one shot to do this, and I had to make it count. Igniting my arm, I shot a ball of flame over to the right making it explode into a ball of light a good forty feet away from me, not very warm, but flickering and flashing to get the general idea across. The guards began to run to it, and I took the chance to ignite the ground behind them, so they were trapped. Now or never.

Flinging myself over the dune, I slid down the other side, hidden thanks to my stealth mode. I ran across the compact sand, distracting the guards by jabbing them with spots of flame. Now it was just time for ninja moves that Nightwing taught me. I scaled the wall of the castle using a pick that I attached to my sleeve.

Flipping onto the roof, I crouched down and pulled out a small device. I clicked it on and it lit up to show a holographic map of the castle. Using my powers, I could put heat signatures onto the map. Queen Bee was in an underground chamber, probably a planning room, along with several other heat spots, presumably guards.

The only problem was that it was four floors down from where I was. I sighed. This was just great.

"C'mon, Rachel, you can do this." I found an air vent and according to my map it went straight down for two floors. I just hoped I wouldn't break something. I climbed in and leapt, flying down the shaft. I saw the end coming and used fire to slow my fall, along with pressing my hands to the sides of the vent. It just didn't work fast enough.

I crashed into the filter, which then opened, and I spun to the floor. I saw two pairs of black boots. Shit. I looked up to see two guards, and I smiled warily. They pointed their guns at me, but I grabbed them and stopped the fire from lighting. "I'm telling you guys, the economy hits everyone hard."

I hoisted myself up into a flip, kicking the one guard in the face in the process. Sliding back, I met the eyes of the second guard. His gun now useless, he charged at me, yelling in Arabic. Quickly, I rolled out of the way, doing a sweep-kick on him, sending him to the ground. I pulled up the map again and ran. Get to the laundry shaft at the end of the hallway and I can get to Queen Bee. Who would have thought a world leader needed a laundry shaft? I couldn't believe my luck.

However, karma was always a factor. Five soldiers turned the corner and began to fire at me. I reacted by lighting up, the bullets melting as they got close to me, liquid lead staining my suit. "Bring it." I shot fireballs at them, catching their uniforms on fire. No! I was aiming for their hands, not their sleeves!

They were screaming, they were in pain, they were…

All of a sudden, I realized I didn't care. It was enough to see the bright blazes around me, the carpets on fire, people gasping for air, their lungs scorched. The energy around me swirled, multiplied, and I was enchanted. Delighted, even. I started laughing - not my usual, friendly laugh, but a darker one, fed by the pain of others. And to be honest, I loved it. It was a world for me and me alone, vaporizing anyone who came near.

I didn't see the rifle butt coming down on my head, but boy, did I feel it.

I woke up to the sound of utterly nothing, which, after living in a cave with several other people for the past three months, was slightly unnerving, yet not unwelcome. I was about to roll over, and reached for my pillow, when I realized.

There was no pillow.

I sat up fast, looking around the room. Or cell, I should say. How long had I been out? It had been two in the morning when I had arrived at...at the base. The memory of my weird fire-sugar-high thing came back to me, and I cringed with guilt. Had those guards made it out okay? Had I killed them? Was I a...a murderer?

I shook my head. Too many unknown variables. Guilt would come later. For now, I had to get out of here, or risk becoming a subject of the Reach.

I tried everything. I ran headfirst into the door (once, I wasn't trying that again), tried my communicator, and pounded on the walls, but nothing worked. I even tried setting the room on fire, but only exhausted my oxygen supply. My head spun and I sank to my knees, but felt a cool breeze and realized there must be an air vent in here somewhere. But no. The air vent, wherever it was, was well hidden and probably unscalable, even if I could reach it. In the end I slid down the wall to a sitting position, planning my next move. When they opened the door I could blast them - but what if I felt that rush again? The high of burning people? It was wrong, but…

The door creaked opened, and I stood up, ready. Instead of guards, Queen Bee herself walked in. "Please, don't even try. I'm here to talk."

I blinked. Did she just say what I thought she said? She wasn't going to kill me or send me to the Reach? She motioned to her guards. "Leave us, she poses no threat." Then she turned to me. "Rachel Pate, correct?"

"How do you…"  
"You see, Phoenix, even though you may come from another so-called Earth, the Light can still find out much about you. I watched the footage from your attack, and I was very interested by how much you enjoyed it."

"I…" What could I say? In the heat of the moment (ba-dum pssh) I did enjoy it. And I'm hating myself for it. Queen Bee smirked.

"Rachel, your job was to eliminate the enemy, which you did flawlessly. They won't be returning to my forces for a good length of time. Of course, my agents - Icicle Jr., the Terror Twins, you know their names - have failed to capture even a single member of your side - so far. Let's just say I could use a more - effective - agent."

"You want me to join you? You're insane!" My hands lit on fire involuntarily, and the two guards rushed at me, lazers quivering on my throat.

"What's insane? You're unsatisfied with the fact they think your friend is less than you, you don't think this plan will work, you see the flaws much clearly than others, whose vision is blurred by the tales of their advisors and you know much, much more than I could ever know about the world right now. Why stay with them? When the good and the bad lines the writers create dissapear, how do you know what you're doing is right?"

"I don't care!" I said, standing up. "I've seen what you can do, I watched you hurt people again and again, and I - I'm not like that."

The Queen laughed. But the friendly light was gone from her eyes. "You were the one that cause fourth-degree burns on the majority of my castle defense squad. And then, if you know what I can do… consider the lives of your friend, Natalia, the girl, Cassie, and, yes," her voice dropped to a whisper, "that pesky bug, Jaime Reyes."

"Y - You wouldn't-"

"If you choose not to cooperate, that's fine." She grabbed my hand, placing a small com-piece on my palm. Her nails dug into the back of my hand, "When you have made your decision, just turn this on. And before you decide to dispose of it, remember that if you decide to break it... I will respect your decision. But others may not. And they have ways of convincing you."

"Queen Bee?" I whispered.

"Yes?"

"Are the guards - are they alive?"

She studied me, her face inscrutable. "Kindness, worry, compassion - all weaknesses. I have erased it from my life and from Bialya, and suggest you do the same with yours." She turned to the guards. "Now please escort Ms. Pate off of the grounds."

As soon as we walked out of vocal range, the guards seemed to come to their senses and fired at me. I took off, straight up, spiraling through the dusty clouds towards the west. I didn't feel much like zeta-tubing straight to the Cave to report a failed mission. And, to be honest, I had a lot to think about. Besides, there was a zeta-tube in Tel Aviv I could access later.

As I watched the coast of the Mediterranean sea grow closer from the horizon, I thought about what the Queen had said. I was...useful? Needed? Beneficial? Not the words I would have used to have describe myself, that's for sure. The com-piece felt ice-cold in my hand. I hadn't even looked at it. And, to be completely honest, I felt I didn't need to. I would never, ever use it - I wasn't desperate.

I landed on the peak of a very high skyscraper, dangerously high, in fact. At least 500 feet above sea level. Ordinarily, I would have sat in the very middle, but today I balanced myself on the very edge, watching people walk under my feet.

To be honest, I really wanted to try the fire thing again. My only assumption that made any sense was that the fire multiplied naturally, rather than all at once, as it did with Malina Island. That part made sense. What didn't make sense was the laughter.

I understood that in the media and in the strictest sense, fire was an evil element. After all, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked, not after the Fire Nation handed out free bagels and coffee. Did the pyrokinesis affect me in more ways than one? Was that really who I was, deep down?

I -

"_Come in Justice League," said the voice of Mal Duncan over the radio. "Mount Justice is...gone_."

**A/N (ER): Hi guys. Ed here. I'm writing this in study hall, so shh.**

**So, I'm just gonna put this out here… we are planning on making Bart X Natalia a thing, if you haven't picked it up already. We have a potential ship name, but we want to hear your thoughts. So, if you have a good ship name, please add in the reviews!**

**Thanks so much! Explosions next week! :D**


	12. Never Too Late

**A/N: Sup guys? Note: this chapter is a little Nat-centric, and the next is going to be a little Rachel-centric, but I'm sure you guys don't mind. It's just how the story works.**

Nat's POV

**MARCH 24TH**

I woke with a start, breathing heavily. Looking around I saw my situation. I was still in the pod, just like the last time. God, I'm an idiot. I should've remembered, I could've stopped this. I pressed my hands against the orange glass material, pain shooting into my shoulders. The shocks left gashes, but the burns hurt more. I saw Bart and Gar unconscious beside me.

What the hell happened?

**24 hours before**

I hit Bart on the head. "You're such an dweeb sometimes, Speed Racer. You know that, right?"

He smiled cockily. "So I've been told. But can't you just finish already?"

I wrapped the bandage around his arm one more time, then tied it off. Apparently, he thought it was a good idea to run backwards, but he just ended up hitting a wall within five seconds. He assured me it would heal, but I kinda just wanted to wrap it just to irk him. "There, done."

He hopped off the table, then sped off. When he returned he was in his costume. "Now c'mon."

I used my telekinesis to change into mine. "Uh, where are we going?"

"Blue's." He didn't need to explain further.

"Gimme a minute. I'm gonna say goodbye to Gar."

"Sounds crash." He zoomed off again, and I made my way to Gar's room. Knocking quietly, I made my way in. He was watching some show on his phone, but as I got closer I heard, "Hello, Megan."

"Hey." He noticed me and smiled, putting the phone down.

"What's up?"

"Just checking up on 'ya. Bart and I are going to see Blue, figure out what to do when Rachel gets back. Party or just movie night."

"How 'bout both?"

I laughed, ruffling his hair. "I'll be back soon, ok?"

"Sure."

Bart ran in and huffed. "You guys are so moding."

Rolling my eyes, I crossed my arms. "Maybe you're just too fast."

"Was that..?"

"Yes."

BB looked back and forth between us. "What am I missing here?"

"Nothing." We said it at the same time, making him even more suspicious.

"Uh, noted." He smiled one more time. "See ya."

"Bye."

The two of us walked out to the Zeta-tubes. "Ugh, that's it." He picked me up bridal style. "You might wanna hang on."

"What the hell are you-" He sped off, still carrying me. "Woah." I wrapped my arms around his neck, hiding my face from the fierce wind. Within an hour we were in front of Blue's house. I stood shakily. "Damn."

"You ok?"

I pulled my hair back into a messy bun. "A little warning would've been appreciated, but I think I'll live."

"Crash." We walked up to the door, Bart knocking rapidly.

**_(just ignore me, I'm just a line break)_**

Blue and Bart were standing, while I sat on one of the large boulders. Being dragged out to Texas was bad enough, now I had to just sit around while they did… whatever guys did. I clicked at my communicator, trying to contact Rachel, but there was only static. Finally I just started texting Carrie.

A sonic blast went off and I stopped the conversation. Blue was blowing up some of the rocks. He blew on his cannon triumphantly. "Take that, hermano."

Bart leaned over, inspecting the wreckage. "Not bad, not bad. But one thing I learned in the future is that it's better to destroy…" He sped around, manipulating the rubble. "Then to create! Tada!" I stood on the boulder, trying to get a better look. I knew what it was of course, but I still wanted to see it.

Blue raised an eyebrow. "Uh, tada what exactly?"

"Curb the attitude, get a little altitude, her-man-o." He did, and even I raised myself up. "Impulse by Impulse. Is that crash or what?"

Blue was astonished. I sat down in mid-air, watching the two of them. Blue nodded as he said, "Crash. Totally…"

Suddenly, Tuppence Terror tackled him to the ground.

"Oh damn it." I flipped around, finding both Terror Twins, Icicle Jr, Aqualad… and Tigress. Artemis.

Landing hard on the ground, I slid to avoid a blast of ice. I shot a green light at Jr, trying to make sure no one got frozen. I had to change this. But it didn't help. Tuppence Terror hit me from behind, sending me flying into one of the rocks. I let out a yelp of pain.

Damn it hurt. I pushed myself up into a crouch, seeing Bart taking the tracker out of Kaldur's hands. _No…_

_**(hello, line break is back. Don't mind me)**_

Bart put me down when we reached the Zeta-tube. After he grabbed the tracker, he picked me up and we ran off. My side was killing me, but I had to keep going. I'm a trooper… sometimes. Just before the computer was going to say our names, I stopped the two. "Maybe we shouldn't take that." I pointed to the tracker. "You don't know what could happen."

Tossing it in the air, Bart caught the device in is opposite hand. "C'mon what's the worst that could happen?"

I huffed. "Fine, see what happens." The computer sounded off the names and we were back in the Cave. Bart nudged Jaime.

"Dude, we left them in the dust!"

"Left who in the dust?" Nightwing walked towards us, then noticed the tracker. "And what is that?"

Bart smiled. "Souvenir."

Blue turned to him. "Souvenir's Beast Boy's thing, ese."

I brushed a piece of hair out of my face. "And KF." I used my telekinesis to grab the tracker out of Bart's hand. "I'll check it out. Is that ok Nightwing?"

He sighed, obviously disappointed. "Follow me." We all did and he continued. "So what happened?"

Blue explained. "We were attacked by Icicle Jr, the Terror Twins, Aqualad-"

"And Tigress." They looked at me. "The ninja girl's name is Tigress. This thing," I waved the tracker, "tracked Blue. Whether it's alien or not is unknown, but likely. Dangerous… I ain't sure yet."

Rachel's POV

**1 Hour Before**

I raced across the ocean, shooting through time zones like red lights. How could I have been such an idiot? I had to get back, I had to find them. "C'mon, Hothead." I felt myself heat up and I flew faster. I wasn't getting there fast enough, though. I had to make sure they weren't taken. I had to know they were ok.

Nat's POV

**23 Hours Before**

We were gathered around the computer, which was displaying information about the tracker. Suddenly, an alarm began going off. Nightwing groaned. "Ugh, I'm an idiot." Then I remembered. Spinning on my heel I stopped Kon from hitting Nightwing.

"Uh, we have company, guys." I put Kon down behind us, then saw them. Bart went after Icicle Jr, and I met eyes with Tigress. She pulled out her crossbow, shooting at me. I flipped out of the way, flying up to dodge. "Next time, don't shoot at a telekinetic." I landed on her shoulder, flipping so she went down and I landed in a crouch. "I can't believe that worked."

Then I heard a huge crack! Bart landed unconscious on the ground next to me. "Impulse?" My eyes widened and I felt the kinetic energy running through me. I whirled onto Tommy Terror. "Dick, move." I lit up in a green light, but as I felt myself being grabbed and flung to the ground. My side was on fire as I saw Tigress over me.

"Take a load off." She snapped an inhibitor collar over me, and I felt like the breath rushed out of me.

Looking up, I smiled and whispered. "Artemis." Then the world began to spin.

Rachel's POV

**30 minutes before**

I landed at the Hall of Justice, not wanting to see the remnants of the Cave. Running through, I found Nightwing and KF at the end of their argument. "Phoenix?"

My breathing was heavy. "Where's Nat?"

Nightwing looked away. "She's… she got captured."

I felt the emotion slide off my face, like I was losing control of my body. Nat, who knew everything that would happen - every advance the Justice League completed, every slip-up the Reach made - had been taken captive by the enemy.

**Watchtower**

**Present**

"So, could you please explain, again, what happened?" said Red Arrow, staring me down.

"I - I was captured - and then - then - then I got out," I stammered. No. No, that wasn't what happened. What happened was I burned the shit out of a bunch of innocent, if slightly brainwashed guards, I was made an offer that I had promised myself I would never accept, and the awful realization that while I was relaxing in a Bialyian cell, Nat, Bart, Gar, and Blue had been taken by force and were probably being tortured as we spoke. But I couldn't say that. So I played dumb. Problem was, no one bought it.

"But how did you escape?! It doesn't make any sense! You're a fifteen-year old girl against one of the most elite fighting forces in the world! There's no way -"

"Roy," said Green Arrow steadily, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's possible she's gone into shock. She can't hear you."

"Shock?"

"Fighting 'one of the most elite forces in the world' might have taken a lot out of her, and - well - she did lose her best friend. Could you please leave her alone?"

Roy looked at me once more, then got up, muttering words I couldn't hear. He and Green Arrow walked into a separate room, one that held the rest of the League. I was alone.

I put my head in my hands, and took in a deep breath, willing myself not to vomit. I can't handle this, I thought desperately. This was close to the day I watched the sun rise in my house - my house, not some goddamned hovel no one cared about anymore, where the memories of my mother and grandparents simply didn't exist because some writers thought it would make a nice plot twist. Close to the day - that dreaded, awful day - when I ran into a parking garage, seeking refuge in vain. Close to the day I learnt Nat had moved away, that my grandfather's cancer had finally bested him, close to the day I opened a formal-looking envelope, assuming to see another bill my mother couldn't pay, only to find what my father had left to me in his will.

But this time it wasn't just a girl in Arizona who was affected. I had let the Team down, I had let the League down, and I had let Nat down. My metaphoric little sister, who I had put through so much pain and confusion over the years, taken captive by the ultimate big bad of the universe, going through hell while I sat on my ass and cried.

And I refused to think about Blue, the hell he must be going through now, while the Reach tried to kill him, using increasingly large amounts of electricity to do away with -

The tears steamed on my cheeks, not reaching the floor. I really understood why Queen Bee told me it was better not to care.

Nat's POV

**23 Hours Before**

I woke with a start, finding myself tied. No! Bart and Blue were next to me, Gar next to him. I could hear Artemis and Kaldur talking - no, this wasn't happening, this wasn't… then I heard the button click down. Before my eyes Mount Justice exploded.

"NO!"

**A/N: Hey guys! So I gots a question. Since you guys know we're writing a sequel that we've dubbed "season 3", what characters do you want to see? Or what characters to you want to see return?**


	13. What About Now

**A/N: Hey guys, I am so glad I was able to get this up on time cause we had a huge storm that knocked out powers for a couple hours. Well, I hope you enjoy this chapter, I think its pretty good, but lets see what you think. Also:**

**Guest 2.0- Thanks for liking the idea of putting Thad in. And for Kenny, you'll find out later where that came from soon.**

**ATLANTIC OCEAN**

**MARCH 30TH 20:20 UTC**

I peeked out of the window of the Bioship, quivering. Kelp floated peacefully, fish diving in their leaves to avoid the current as the ship sailed past. I hated these underwater missions, where the only viable source of oxygen was 500 feet directly above me, but this one was different. Hopefully, I would get my friends back, save the innocent, and not drown. Unless something went wrong.

Nightwing was obviously pleased with the way things were going, though. "Good," he said, scanning through the computer. "They're leading us to Lagoon Boy and the others."

"How can you be sure?" asked Cassie, looking up from her own computer.

"Wishful thinking?"

"A - And the abductee shipment at the docks - how'd you know about that?"

"Aquaman came across the intel while searching for La'Gann," he said with an air of finality. Cassie took the hint and resumed her digital search, looking puzzled.

I looked at Nightwing, frowning. He sure was trusting a lot of things to chance. What if she doubled back with Aquaman, found out he had never discovered the intel, and then cornered Nightwing about it? What -

A current rocked the Bioship slightly, jarring me from my thoughts of unraveling canon to the cold, suffocating water down here that could cut off activity in my cerebral cortex in minutes. I remembered reading _The Perfect Storm_ in eighth grade, how I would be dead in an hour if the windows gave out right now. I shivered.

M'Gann glanced at me. "Sorry, Phoenix."

"It's fine. I'm fine."

Nat's POV

_I chucked a rock into the gorge behind the diner, and watched it skitter into others, causing a miniature avalanche. Rachel kicked at an exposed portion of a larger rock, spreading dust all over her sneakers. The sun glared overhead, just like it always did here. It felt good to be back._

_Rachel took a swig of her lemonade, puffing out her cheeks to annoy me. I poked one, and she almost choked as her laughter mixed with the drink._

_After she had swallowed safely and resumed her rock kicking, I turned to her. "What do you say we go biking today?" I asked her. Nodding, Rachel turned around and jogged across the rough terrain towards our bikes, parked haphazardly near the dumpster. Hers was a blue and black mountain bike, covered in orange dust, mine a standard red and white like a candy cane, with authentic New York gravel ground deep into the treads._

_As I walked across the sandy gravel, mist began to coil around my feet, and I watched my shadow slowly begin to fade away as the fog polished out the sun. That was odd. It was rarely foggy here._

_"Rachel, you seeing this?" I asked, facing my friend._

_She turned and smiled at me, cold and dominative, as a series of clicks and chirps echoed from her mouth. I gasped -_

And woke up.

My head snapped left and right, before I fell back, groaning. I was still in the pod. Whether it had a nightmare maker, I wasn't positive, but it sure as hell felt like it. And speaking of things hurting like hell, my side certainly wasn't feeling any better. It was crusted with dried blood, and if I tried to move, the wound opened again.

C'mon Team.

Rachel's POV

Ok, I can do this, just don't think about all the water. The Bio-ship attached itself to the dock of the Reach ship, and I felt it jerk forward as it did so. I can do this, I can get them back… most likely. No, no doubting myself. I can't do that today.

The hatch slowly opened revealing a lot of unconscious Reach peeps and a Superboy. All of us stepped out, ready. Nightwing nodded to me and I ran to the nearest control panel. My job, snuff it out, so the Reach doesn't know we're here. But, thanks to that perfect superhero timing, an alarm went off. Nat, Gar, and Bart were ok, they were out. And that meant Blue would be out, and ok.

I turned. "We have to find the abductees." Superboy opened up the next hatch, revealing Bumblebee, Robin, and Batgirl leading the abductees. Let's see the Runaways, Steph Brown… then an extra. She was Chinese I think, shorter and thin. I never saw her before.

Karen smiled at Conner. "Nice timing, handsome." The abductees ran into the Bio-ship, but as Static and the Asian girl were about to, the doors shut. We all turned and I let out a gasp. Black Beetle stood there, and he was big. Really big.

Cassie pointed. "Listen, uh, Black Beetle. Open those doors now, and we'll go easy on you."

He smiled menacingly, his voice deeper than in the show, if that was even possible. "You, will go easy? On me?" He began to laugh, a villainous laugh that made me cringe.

Karen appeared by my ear. "Oh, that is not a good sign."

Nat's POV

Groggily, I saw M'gann rising up from the floor. I hit the glass of the pod, getting her attention. She nodded, and I knew she was going to get me out of here. In a few seconds I saw her eyes flash green, the fronts of our pods ripping open. I landed on my knees, seeing Bart next to me.

"Thanks." M'gann smiled and began to help Gar. "Impulse?" Bart hopped up and suddenly had a serious look on his face.

"Thanks for the help, nowgottafindBlue!" He was gone in an instant.

"Damn it, I need to get him."

"Kinetica."

I ignored them and flew off after him. I knew what he was going to do, but that didn't mean I liked it. Running through my mind, I thought about the parts of the ship I knew. C'mon Nat, where is it? This was the second room, third, third, … there! I saw the door. One one problem…

There were a lot of Reach soldiers in the way.

Ok, I can do this. Just - I threw energy out in all directions, knocking the soldiers into the walls. "Nifty." Running, I opened the door, finding Bart and Blue. "Guys!"

Bart's face was serious, and I felt like… nevermind. "Kenny?"

"By the look on your guyses faces, you told him."

Blue looked wary, but stood straight. "You knew."

I sighed. "By this point, I thought you would understand, there's a lot of stuff I know." I glanced down at the unconscious Reach scientist. "C'mon, we have to get to the Bio-ship." I felt a stab of pain in my side. I had to get to the Bio-ship. And pray someone was O-negative.

Rachel's POV

I slammed into the wall, getting the wind knocked out of me. I thought Black Beetle was huge as a character, but in person he had to be seven feet at least. I looked around. There were two abductees on our side of the wall, Static and the girl I didn't recognize. I had to figure that out later.

"Yo, Black!" He turned on me, tossing Superboy away with ease. Maybe this wasn't my best plan, but I had to try. "Ready for round two?" I lit up, throwing a fireball at him. He growled at me. Damn. I rolled out of the way, back to back with Cassie.

"Phoenix, next time, don't get him mad."

I laughed nervously. "I'll keep that in mind -"

"Duck!" I did, and we narrowly avoided a sonic blast.

"Okay, let's see," I muttered. This floor wasn't flammable - as metal usually was - but I could try to send a thin trail of flame to his foot, and upwards from there. Skin, unlike metal, usually was slow to burn, but fast to hurt. God, I hated how I knew that.

"Cassie! Is that the best you got?" I shouted across the room.

She grinned. "Nope!" A flash of gold shot across the room, and the next second, Black Beetle had been dragged down by his wrist. For a second, he stayed down, groaning slightly. Cassie laughed.

Oh, but wait.

The next second, Black Beetle flicked his arm, and sent Cassie sprawling towards the doors. "Cassie!" I screamed, and took my eyes off Black Beetle for a millisecond. When I turned back to him, I felt his fist connect with my shoulder. I went flying, skidding into walls, ricocheting off them and ultimately ending up right next to Cassie. I couldn't begin to imagine the energy that would have taken.

Then the doors opened. In the one piece of my brain that wasn't clouded with pain, I thought what great timing it was. Not before I was punched. No. After.

Because being a superhero makes you feel just fine.

Nat's POV

"Nat?" Bart touched my shoulder, concerned. I shrugged it off.

"I'm fine. C'mon, we're… Beast Boy!" Gar turned around, and I saw half of Miss M part way shifted.

"Kinetica! There's…"

"Black Beetle. I know. Is everyone in there with him?"

"I don't think so. The Bio-ship's cut off with the abductees. But how do we-"

"Hang on." I found the control system, and used energy to short circuit it. The door opened, revealing nearly everyone down. Rachel was snuffed out, her hair and face covered in ashes. "No." Black Beetle was finishing with Cass as I turned. "We have to get everyone to the ship now. Blue…"

He touched the side of the ship. "Yeah, go." The door opened, and I saw Static falling back. I started running to Rachel, but that damned Black Beetle was in the way and Jaime needed time. Without thinking much, I leapt, grabbing his wing things, and twisted. As I dropped, though, I felt him grab my leg.

I felt my side open up as he threw me into the wall. "Ugh."

"Kenny!" Bart was in front of me.

I pushed him away. "Don't call me that. Get the others, I'll be fine." But was I? I wasn't entirely sure. I saw the two beetles and the… water. It hit my side in a rush. Before I could even cry out in pain, I was swept into the waves. Water got into my mouth, and I felt like I was going to pass out.

"C'mon Nat." In a blast of wind I was in the Bio-ship, coughing up the water. "Nat…" I felt Bart touch my side, making me wince. It hurt so much, I was getting woozy, I was…

Leney's POV

I saw the telekinetic girl fall into the speedster's arms. The fire girl ran over, a gasp escaping her mouth. She shouted orders to get somebody called Blue. My fingers tingled as I looked at the younger girl. She was ghostly pale, cuts and bruises along her face, and her side. It was almost black with blood, at least a day old. How was she even alive?

"Nat! Wake up! Oh, please wake up! I can't stand water!" The fire girl was shaking her, but nothing happened. Leney Lin, do something! I walked out of the corner.

"I-I can help. I think."

The blonde fire girl was suspicious. "Who are you?"

"Marlene."

The speed guy looked at me too. "How?"

"I have biokinesis."

The fire girl hit her head. "You can save Nat! Could you? You need to! Do you need blood to help?" She whirled around, not waiting for any of my answers. "Is anyone O-negative? Beast Boy!"

The green kid shook his head. "I can't, my blood -"

"Right, yeah, your blood is weird. never mind. Uh…"

"I don't need the blood," I say, touching her arm. "All I need to do is seal up the wound, and she should wake up-"

"Okay, so…"

"Just let me work. And please, be quiet for a bit. I need to focus."

Rachel's POV

**ATLANTIC OCEAN**

**MARCH 30TH 22: 30 UTC**

The girl, Marlene, began to heal Nat in the other part of the ship. La'gann got Blue back, and now… it was ok. I sat next to him, waiting. Bart was with Nat and Marlene, waiting. We were all waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Jaime stirred, then shot up, his armor disappearing.

"It's me! It's me."

I smiled weakly. "I know that."

"Rachel?" he said. I smiled, and kissed him on the cheek, not really thinking it through.

"Hi." I hugged him tightly. "I'm so glad you're ok."

"So am I. Just think about how crazed you would've gotten."

"I - oh, shut up." I threw my arms around his neck, and hugged him tightly. "I missed you so much, Blue."

"Same to you, Phoenix."

Leney's POV

The girl, I figured out her name was Nat, began to stir. The boy, Impulse, held her hand. They had to be younger than I was, either 13 or 14, yet here they were. Being superheroes. I sat down, a little exhausted from using my powers. Yet, it was easier than before, probably thanks to the noseless scum that kidnapped me.

"Nat?" Impulse shook her gently, and I saw her eyes open. They flashed green before turning a dim hazel.

She smirked. "Sup, Speed Racer?" Then she noticed me. "Um, who are you?"

"Marlene."

"You saved me. Biokinesis I'm guessing?"

I nodded. "How'd you guess?"

She shrugged. "Instinct. But, thanks." She swung around a bit, Impulse catching her at her waist. He smiled, and helped her up. "And do you have a nickname or whatever?"

"Leney."

She smiled, revealing an overbite. "Nifty."

Nat's POV

**MOUNT JUSTICE**

**APRIL 1ST 00:10 EST**

I was sitting on the edge of my bed, picking at the lint on my pajamas. I heard Bart spit as he finished brushing his teeth, then the fervent scrubbing as he washed his face. I couldn't believe he had agreed to do this again, because there was no way I was going to sleep alone tonight, and no way I was going to sleep with Rachel. That girl kicked hard.

"Don't get my counter all wet," I called as I heard water splash onto the counter. I sighed.

"No, I've got it, I've got it, don't get up," he said.

I fell back on my bed, rubbing my face. What horrors would I face tonight? Rachel speaking the Reach language, like the nightmare I had in the pod? Or was it the old fallback - Danny again? I would have loved to have a happy memory about him, but everything was tinted with the horrible reminder that he was gone.

Bart came out of the bathroom, jarring me from my depressing train of thoughts. His red hair was just beginning to dry, and he was wearing a black t-shirt and -

"Flash pajama bottoms?" I asked, looking up at him skeptically.

"From the closet of the infamous Wally West," he said, looking down at his legs and flexing them slightly. "Only thing I could find."

"Whatever," I said, pulling the comforter up to my neck and snuggling down in them. "Hurry up or you'll let in all the -"

He literally appeared beside me, the comforter floating down in his wake.

"- Cold air in," I sighed, and snuggled against his chest, closing my eyes. He rested one hand on my side, careful of it. It was still a little sore. "Hey."

"Huh?" He was making small circles around the edge of the bandage, sending a tingling feeling across my skin…. did I just say that?

"I'm glad you're ok, Speed Racer."

He smiled, his bright green eyes appearing gold in the dim light. "I'd think you'd be more concerned about yourself. Nearly dying and all."

My voice came out small as I said, "It wasn't the first time."

He nuzzled in my hair. "Nat…"

"It's nothing. Can we…" I ran my fingers across a scar on his arm. "could we go to sleep now?"

"'Course." I snuggled in closer to him. "You know we have therapy tomorrow."

"It's a meeting with Black Canary. Don't wonder about it."

"Nat -"

I didn't say anything. I just listened to his heartbeat, its steadiness lulling me asleep.

Rachel's POV

"Okay, okay, but are you sure you can -"

"Rachel, I'm perfectly sure I can manage to go home, alright? The scarab says I'm fully functional. I'm fine."

"Okay, but remember, if you need me, you can -"

"Just call, I know. I gave you my number, right?"

"Yeah," I say, pulling up my contact list and flashing the screen at him.

"Alright. So...I guess I'll leave now…"

He hopped down from the table, and rolled his bare shoulders. I pressed my lips together, trying not to say anything rash. We both stared at the medical ward's floor, the buzz of the fluorescent lighting filling the silence. "So...Nightwing told me you, uh...you went a little crazy…" he said, smirking.

Damn you, Nightwing, I cursed inside my head, but I shrugged. "Yeah, I...I missed you a lot, you know?"

He didn't say anything. I continued

"I just…I want to make sure you stay safe - and Nat and Bart, too, everyone on the team, but…I guess you're just, important to me, you know? Like, I couldn't stand it when I knew you were getting hurt, and I was alright…it did drive me crazy, because I didn't like to think of you at - at risk -"

Blue smiled, reddening. "I - I didn't know you were...you know...worried…"

"Are you kidding? I've cared about you since you were a...a cartoon...character…" I said, dwindling off as I realized Blue was looking at me again.

"The ever-so-attractive animated Blue Beetle?" he asked, grinning.

"Oh, god," I said, giggling.

"The one," he said, walking over to me, "who recently captured the attention of a certain flaming girl?"

"Please stop," I said, blushing furiously, covering my face with my hands.

He took my wrists in his hands, pulling my hands away from my face. "A very pretty fire girl, if I do say so myself."

I had gone completely numb. Apparently, Blue had, too. We stood, facing each other, mouths slightly open, eyes wide, for what felt like an eternity.

"Hey, Blue," I whispered.

"What?"

"What the hell are we trying to do here?"

"I was hoping for a kiss," he said, blushing deeply. He leaned in, his eyes sliding closed as they came closer to me. I'm not exactly sure when my eyes closed, but I can be sure the smile never left my face.

My nose hit something hard, and I opened my eyes suddenly. Blue's brown eyes met mine, and I was forced to cross my eyes to see that my nose had rammed into his. My face went even redder,

"Shit," I breathed, pulling back.

"No, we can salvage this," said Blue, and gripped the sides of my face, pulling me closer to him, making sure to tilt my head so that our noses didn't hit again. I closed my eyes.

**A/N: Well, how did you guys like that? And also, anybody at or going to NYCC? We're heading there tomorrow, and we're pretty excited! And wait, question for the week. Hrmmmmm- oh, how about, who do you think would be a good voice for our characters if they were actually in the show? Yes, I like that question. See ya next week peeps.**


	14. When the Darkness Comes

**A/N: HELLO ALL OF OUR LOVELY, WONDERFUL READERS! WE ARE SO SORRY WE ARE SO LATE ON THIS CHAPTER. SCHOOL HAS BEEN CRAZY AND WE'VE BEEN FEELING JUST A BIT UNINSPIRED. BUT WE ARE BACK, AND CHAPTER 15 WILL BE POSTED ON SATURDAY AND WE WILL BE BACK TO OUR ONCE A WEEK ROUTINE. Also, to all guests to review, I now post my answers on the chapter.**

**Guest- Thank you, I'm glad you enjoy the story.**

**Guest 2.0- That's ironic, considering that is the exact opposite of how we imagined them, but I like your thinking. **

**NOW ONTO THE STORY.**

Nat's POV

**CENTRAL CITY**

**APRIL 1 07:31 CST**

There was a faint knock on the door. I had stayed at the Garrick's last night, since obviously I couldn't stay at the Cave since… yeah. I tried to stretch out, but I found two things blocking me. One, my side was still aching. Two… Bart held me against his chest.

The knocking came again, louder this time, and I sighed. Pushing against his chest I struggled out of his grip, only to land on the ground. Stabbing pain engulfed me. "Shit."

I felt a blast of wind and saw Bart in front of me. His hair was all messy and he looked exhausted. Honestly, I was too. "Nat?"

I fell back onto my back (hehe, I crack myself up sometimes). "Ugh."

"Do you want help up?"

I nodded. He grabbed my wrists and yanked me up. Once I was on my feet, I fell back onto the bed. "Get the door, Speed Racer." I heard him walk over and tell Joan we would be down in a few minutes. When the door closed I laughed. "How about a few hours?"

I felt him flop down next to me. "I know right?"

"Well, too bad, Speed Racer. Help me up." He did and we walked downstairs to the kitchen. I hated how I had to hold onto his arm to get down, but apparently he didn't complain. I sat down at the table and shlumped into the chair. "Meh."

"I know the feeling." Bart sat next to me. Joan smiled, wished us good morning, and then placed breakfast in front of us. I took a sip of chocolate milk, but other than that, my plate remained untouched. I couldn't eat today, not with everything that happened the day before. Glancing over, I noticed Bart wasn't eating as much as I would've expected.

"You ok?"

He sniggered. "You're asking me if I'm ok? That's nice coming from you Miss I Can't Walk Downstairs Without Help."

"I can… I- I just choose the…" I couldn't think of an excuse. I heard his quiet laughter in my ear. "Oh shut up."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were laughing." He smiled sheepishly and took a bite of his toast. Hoisting myself up I used my telekinesis to walk to the stairs. Bart choked when he saw.

"Why didn't you do that before?"

"Because you make such a nice helper monkey."

Rachel's POV

**EL PASO**

**APRIL 1 9:23 MDT**

"Jaime, come _on_, let's move," I said, pushing him towards the door.

"It's only me that has to go, right?"

"Yes, only you. Now _go_, goddamnit!"

He laughed and sidestepped me, causing me to fall forwards. He snagged me around the waist, and stood me up neatly.

"Thanks," I said grudgingly, crossing my arms in front of my chest and looking at the floor.

"_De nada_," he said, kissing my cheek. I felt a surge of red come to my face, stupidly. We've were technically a couple (in private, of course; I don't think I could bear the constant fangirling from Nat) for - what, a few hours? - but Black Beetle must have hit my head harder than I thought. Me, going out with Blue Beetle? No way.

"Now get going! Go! Shoo!"

"What are you going to do? Now that the Cave's destroyed, I mean."

"Nightwing scored a base in Blüdhaven. I'll be staying there, in close - closer - quarters with Nat, M'Gann, Connor...the rest."

"Well, remember, you're always welcome at _la casa de los_ Reyes," he said, spreading his arms and armoring up.

I smiled. "Tha-"

"Yes, she is! She'll be fine!"

I glanced at him.

"Sorry. Scarab backsass."

"It's fine. Go."

Nat's POV

**TAOS**

**APRIL 1, 17:23 MDT**

"Why the camera?" I asked, surveying the red light with suspicion.

"You know, Virgil - the boy that was in here earlier - he asked the same question. It's to-"

"Record what I say, I know, but really, couldn't you just ask me for confirmation later?"

Black Canary looked at me, affronted.

"It's - it's been a long day," I said, rubbing my face.

"I don't doubt it," she said, lacing her fingers together. "Now, why don't you tell me about how you came to acquire your powers?"

"Well...Rachel has some theories about that. You know what a metagene is, right?"

"I have a vague understanding."

"Well, Rachel think that while we were traveling between…dimensions, right? We must have come into contact with something that made us adapt like that, between here and there."

"So you're saying that something between dimensions gave you telekinesis?"

"Yes, and gave Rachel pyrokinesis. But it doesn't have to be directly between. The border of your dimension or the border of mine could have had the same effect. But there's no way to find out."

"What caused the dimension crossing - or, another one of your elaborate theories?" she asked. Was that sarcasm in her voice? I can't tell.

"The dimension crossing - I have no idea how that happened. We were being chased by these guys, and we just...yeah."

"I see. Well, you are dismissed." She waved her hand at the door, and I hurried out.

"La'gaan?" she called. Grumbling, he stood up and walked into the room, closing the door behind him.

There was no one else in the hallway except for the biokinetic girl and Virgil, who sat next to her. I guess he was waiting for her, since he had already talked to Canary.

I sat across from them. The girl had headphones in and was drumming her fingers against her leg to the music, eyes closed. Virgil pulled one out of her left ear and put it in his right. Her eyes opened and she punched his arm. That was cute. Unconsciously, I began to smile. The two looked at me.

I decided it would be less awkward if I said something. "Um.. hello."

Rachel's POV

The new quarters were pretty much what I expected, but maybe I could try and salvage something before Despero destroyed everything. I landed softly on the ground, charring it instantly. Conner and M'gann were beside me. Ok, we could do this. Most likely… but then there was the me factor. Wait -

"Wait, Connor?" I asked, reaching forwards slightly. We were almost at the door, and I had no idea how Despero fares against firepower.

"Yeah?" he said, looking over his shoulder.

"If I - like - go… berserk, could you...stop me?"

"Uh...sure?" he says. "Berserk?"

"Laughing, massive amounts of fire, evil look, etc." I say, looking down.

"Sure," he says, looking a little confused. And if someone asked me the same thing, I would be too.

I charged to the left, Conner speeding off to the right. In front of me, Billy was thrown into the base of a statue - I thought it was Wonder Woman, but I can't be sure - and crumpled. Despero approached rapidly, growling deep in his throat.

"Hey, Ugly! Pick on someone...Uh...a lot smaller than you!" I said. God damn it Rachel, you need some new lines.

Despero ignored this, but L-Ron swooped in and gestured to me. "Hark, Master, a new challenger! The crest on her uniform resembles the Kryptonian flamebird, and WHAT a pretty head!"

"Kryptonian?" said Conner.

"Pretty head?" I said.

"Come, petty earthling, demonstrate your worth! Otherwise you will not have the honor of defeat from my master!"

I shook my wrists, and flames curled up my arms, emboldening me. I was just confused for a powerful Kryptonian mythological figure, and who says they're wrong? God damn it, I am fabulous and on fire.

"Quickly, master, attack!" shouted L-Ron, and Despero did, snarling. His fists rose, and I shot into the air moments before they pounded into the ground immediately where I was standing. I fire a volley of shots at Despero's back, obscuring the area in dust and smoke.

Silence.

"Nice!" shouted Conner, grinning up at me.

A piece of the marble floor twice the size of my head flew out of the smoke and struck my right shoulder. My arm was dislocated once before now - I was seeing how high I could go on the swing and fell off at the peak, but continued to hold on; I was dragged through the mulch and my arm was yanked out of its socket. I can immediately feel the same thing has happened again. I looked away from the dust for a second to inspect the damage.

Immediately, Despero slammed into me, throwing me to the ground. His weight crushes my shoulders into the rubble, and I squirm under his weight. My fire does nothing.

Sure, worthy of the Kryptonians.

"A weak opponent," agreed L-Ron, hovering over his master's shoulder. "Just a child. Worthless. Stun her, Master."

Despero opens that nasty third eye of his, and I slip away from the world.

Leney's POV

"Um… hello." The girl- Nat, was it?- said slightly embarrassedly.

"Hi." I said. The word came out kind of quietly. Oh wow. I had made the situation even more weird. Virgil remained silent, probably still pissed off at Black Canary. Looked like the social interaction was left to me. Joy. "You're Nat, right?" This time I said it a little louder. Success!

"Yeah. Uh, you-you're Leney?" she asked.

"Yep."

"Cool."

I nodded. This conversation was getting awkwarder and awkwarder. Even Virgil was starting to look slightly uncomfortable. Mentally, I sighed. I had always had trouble talking to people I didn't know well. If I felt like a situation was weird, I would try to make it less weird, but fail in the process and just make it worse. I prayed to the beagle gods (it was a long story, involving a friend and a dead dog) that this would end soon. The door opened and the finned superhero with the grumpy disposition walked out.

"Marlene?" Black Canary called. Apparently, the beagle gods existed. I paused my music and shrugged off my sweatshirt.

I turned to Virgil. "Don't you dare change my passcode again."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he deadpanned.

"Uh-huh. Sure." I walked into the room. Oh God, there was a camera. I tried to pretend it wasn't there.

"So, Marlene, you were born in Manhattan, correct?" Black Canary asked.

"In Chinatown, yeah." I found it fairly easy to talk to Canary, probably because she radiated calm. I distantly recalled something about her being a trained psychiatrist. "I got shunted around the entire city though, after I ended up in the foster system."

"And when was that?"

"When I was ten. My parents were deported and I got placed in the system."

"I see." She looked at me thoughtfully.

"Sorry, but why are you asking me about this?"

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable," she smiled apologetically, "I'm trying to establish if there was something in your past that gave the Reach a motive to abduct you."

I coughed, trying to cover up my disdain at the subject. To say my past was a bit personal was an understatement. But I nodded anyways, as a way to sat I would tell you if I knew.

Canary seemed to get the message. "Maybe we could figure it out. Did you develop your powers after you were taken by the Reach."

The words flowed from my mouth without wanting them to. "No, but they didn't seem to know that. When I was… experimented on, it seemed to amplify the biokinesis." I wiggled my fingers to make a point. "So, I guess… that was their plan. To give us powers and in return… I don't know what they would've had us do."

"Well, thank you, Marlene. Please - um, send in the next kid."

Nat's POV

I was sitting peacefully in my chair when Bart seized my arm as Blue dragged him out into a separate hallway. "Hey!"

"Hermano, let go of her," said Blue dully, glaring at him.

"What? She knows," said Bart.

"A-and Rachel probably knows, too," I said, looking between the two boys. "Knows...whatever you're doing."

"You have no idea what we're talking about; do you, hermana?" said Blue, surveying me with distaste.

"No, it's just you guys talk about a lot of things, and it's kinda hard to keep track of them. This is..." I leaned in, and their heads bumped against mine. "This is the debate about Jaime's apocalypse, right?"

Jaime stared at the ground, ashamed, but Bart beamed. "Yup. So now can she stay?"

"Fine," he spat out. "She can stay."

He drug us into an empty hallway and crossed his arms. I know Carrie crossed her arms when she got pissed, and I was sincerely hoping Blue wasn't the same. "So, future experts, what do I have to do to halt my destruction of the Earth?" he said grimly.

I pressed my lips together, running a hair through my fizzed hair. "Look, Blue. The honest truth, no one knows what turns you to the Reach's side in the future."

However, I heard that little voice in the back of my head whispering, _But you do, Nat. You know everything about this_. I glanced at Blue, seeing his dismay.

Bart cut in, saving me from the pain of telling Blue the truth. "I mean, for all we know, telling the League could be the very thing that turns you. So -"

"So," I interrupted, mostly because I didn't exactly trust Bart's wording, "Speed Racer here thinks it would be best to keep quiet about it."

Blue crossed his arms. "What about you?"

"I- I don't know. But," Bart cut me off, and for once, I'd like to thank the Lord.

"Should Rachel be filled in on this?" asked Bart, glancing between me and Blue.

"I - I don't want her to worry," said Blue.

"She's already worried," I say, fiddling with my gloves. "She's been worried about you since you started showing - ouch!" I shouted, holding my arm. Bart jerked his head towards Blue, who watching me with wide eyes. "I'm gonna go sit back down now."

Rachel's POV

_"So, antigravity tech would be pretty useful here with the American government," says Grandpa, nodding._

_"But couldn't the enemies use it, too?"_

_Grandpa purses his lips and gazes up at the night sky, and I follow suit. We're on a boulder, sitting out of place on the continuous dusty terrain of the desert, far away from the glow of the Christmas lights. The last strains of my cousin's drunken voice reach us as she belts out the chorus of 'Louie, Louie' one last time._

_I don't know why my mind went back to this long-gone memory. It was the Christmas just after my father left us on Halloween, and the entire family had come out to help my mother got over it. Grandpa lived with us permanently, and he was pretty sick of all the "he'll come back" or "this is all temporary" comforts. I got the impression in later years that he could never stand my father. Instead, he turned to his spaceship searching, looking for aliens and government conspiracies._

_I hadn't thought about this Christmas, or this discussion, in ages, though I guess it was somewhat ironic I was close friends with a Martian and somewhat-friends with a half-Kryptonian. And Blue...god, I don't even know what he'd be categorized as._

_"Sweetheart, I think...if we use it responsibly, and don't do anything rash with it, alien tech could be very useful here on Earth."_

_Well, that fit in to the Blue discussion really well._

_"What do scabs have to do with alien stuff?" I ask, squinting._

_"Rash," says Grandpa, smiling. "Impulsively. Something you can't control."_

_"Oh."_

_Grandpa pats my shoulder. "Are you excited for Santa Clau-"_

_"Yes."_

_"You know, you have to be in bed for him to come."_

_"Grandpa, how do you know so much?"_

_"Old age," he says. "It's a pain in the ass."_

_"Pain in the ass," I repeat, giggling._

_"Now, don't let your mother know I said that."_

I drifted away from the memory, spiraling off into the darkness of my mind. I'd never really had time to explore my mindscape. It was always been blocked out by sight or sound or some candle off someplace. Now that I wasn't tied to anything, it was frightening.

I floated around - or at least it felt like I'm floating - remembering things long forgotten. Why I like motorcycles so much - it turns out my dad's best friend had one. The first time I met Nat when we were kids, God she was small. And the first time I began to crush on Blue.

_Nat was laying upside down on the couch, her face beginning to turn red. I chewed my gum just a bit too loudly, just so she would be annoyed. We were both still in our pajamas, and it was ten in the morning. "You ready?"_

_She nodded. "Born that way."_

_It was the premiere of the second season of Young Justice. We were both very excited, and I couldn't wait._

_Once it was over I squealed. "Did you see that Blue Beetle?"_

_Nat dug into the waffles she made during the commercial, shoveling some into her mouth. She swallowed. "Yes I did. Very interesting."_

_I tapped my foot. "Sarcasm?"_

_She held up her hand, two fingers pointed out with only a little space between them. "Little bit."_

_"But just look at him. He's…"_

_"A fictional character."_

_"Yes, but - hey what if it was Bart Allen that showed up?"_

_She stuck her tongue out, looking annoyed. "Fine, I see your point, Hot Head. Just don't fangirl every five seconds over him."_

_I smiled devilishly. "No promises."_

_RACHEL!_

My eyes shot open, sitting up like a rocket. I looked around, but no one was there. Wait, M'gann I'm coming. I ran and leapt through the hole, landing on my ass in from of L-Ron, and the unconscious body of Despero. Nice shot, Zatanna.

"Liars! Cheats!" L-Ron screeched, utterly outraged. "You will now suffer the consequences!" His body expanded, showing off weapons. I drew back a breath, but Billy came down, landing on the robot.

"Let's try this again. SHAZAM!" In a bolt of lightning, Billy was Captain Marvel once again, but L-Ron wasn't done. There was a distinct beep and I remembered.

"Guys, take cover!"

The self-destruct sequence went off, decimating the Hall, but thanks to my warning, we got to a safe-ish place, and mostly unharmed. Now all we had to do was get rid of this force field.

Nat's POV

Blue charged into the room, and I blinked. He was really gonna do it. Well, I had to see this. I walked after him, and heard him begin to explain his situation.

Bart sped in before I could, whispering to Blue, "Uh what did we say about not -"

"Impulse." His eyes met mine, and they - they were cold. I knew why, but that didn't mean it was ok. "Let him say it."

"Kinetica?" Blue was shocked, but I huffed.

"Ok, fine, since you boys obviously are in denial. In the future, Blue is taken back over by the Reach, and in turn causes a Reach apocalypse. So, the scarab somehow gets back on mode,"

"Which is what I don't want to happen." Blue de-armored, and jutted his thumb at the scarab. "So whatever it takes, get this scarab off of me."

Leney's POV

Staying at STAR labs wasn't my idea of fun, but it was better than a lot of places I had lived. There was a bed, and there was heating. I was fine. Asami and I shared a room, but it wasn't like we could be normal girl roommates. I understood little to no Japanese.

Laying down on my bed, I looked up at the ceiling. I was ready to figure out what I was capable of, and how I could help people. But, then there was that team of super-kids. A lot of them were younger than I was, yet were saving people. I wanted to be one of them, a superhero maybe.

But it didn't seem possible now. The Reach had a firm grip on the earth. Yet… that could be the best chance to help. Sitting up I saw the half-asleep form of Asami, and sighed. I couldn't do it alone, but hey, team's seemed to work these days. Ha, maybe that baby justice league could help.

Nat's POV

After the whole fiasco, I decided it was best to just hang out on the roof of an abandoned building until I could think straight. I didn't want to hide things anymore… hell I don't really want to be _here_ anymore. I wanted to go home. Earth-Prime sort of home.

"Nat?" Bart was suddenly next to me, sitting down so he was level with me. "What's up?"

I huffed. "Lots of stuff, Speed Racer."

He nodded. "But why did you, um… you know the stuff that happens."

"So do you."

"Well, yeah, but - Nat why didn't you say you knew why he turned sides?" His voice was serious, and I felt a pang of guilt in my chest.

"Because, I can't." I stood, my feet on the edge of the roof, wind blowing through my hair.

"Kenny."

I looked at him. "Why do you call me that?" I hopped down from the elevated edge, and stood with him. "It's just… no one ever knew me as that."

"I did. Or I will."

I tilted my chin up so I could meet his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Kenny, it's short for Kinetica, ok? Can we drop it?"

I grabbed his wrist. "Glad this interrogation has turned, but Bart, listen. That means you knew me in the future, _your_ present, right?"

He gave me a small nod.

"We come here even in the messed up reality. We could've - we did - go to the reality where we didn't know anything. Bart." I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him tightly. After a moment, he returned it.

"To be honest, you weren't as snippy then."

A small laugh escaped me and I looked at him. "Oh well." Then I rose to my tip-toes and gently kissed his cheek. "I need to go to Bludhaven."

He touched the cheek I kissed, a blush similar to mine appearing. "Okay, uh, well crash. I'll see you - see you later then, Kenny." He sped off and I was alone again. Carefully, I pulled out the charred picture of Danny out of my pocket.

"Let's go Dan-man."

**A/N: Sorry, no question this week except, what do you think of the story so far? Anything you want to see happen? Review!**


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